“THE LIVES OF HAWAI‘I’S DOLPHINS AND WHALES: NATURAL HISTORY AND CONVERSATION”

By Robin W. Baird (University of Hawai‘i Press; $24.99)

If you didn’t know that minke whales go “boing” or that false killer whales bear aloft their dead calves in mourning, you must read biologist Robin Baird’s beautiful new book, “The Lives of Hawai‘i’s Dolphins and Whales.” Reporting up-to-date science in a conversational voice, this companionable volume is filled with big blue pictures of all the cetaceans who swim around our islands.

Hawaii’s Delphinidae ohana — the naia, or dolphin family — includes blackfish (orcas, false killer whales, pilot whales) and dolphins (bottlenose, rough-toothed, spinner, short-beaked and more). Families of kohola, or whales, comprise beaked whales, sperm whales (full-size giants plus dwarf and pygmy species) and baleen whales (right, blue, fin, sei, minke and humpback whales).

The photos brim with character: A false killer whale wears a “come-to-daddy” smile as it bites a mahimahi that was hiding behind the photographer; a juvenile sperm whale rolls alongside a research boat, eyeing it through a curtain of water.

Many photos show scars left by shark bites or being hit by boats. Other stresses include parasites, entanglement in fishing gear, Navy sonar and choking on plastics mistaken for prey. Overfishing may harm false killer whales, who like the same fish as we do.

“The average weight of an ‘ahi caught today in Hawaiian waters is about half that of those caught in the 1940s,” Baird writes.

On a brighter note, Baird says protection from whaling since 1966 and their diverse, flexible diet have helped endangered humpback whale populations rebound.

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“LONG HOPS: MAKING SENSE OF BIRD MIGRATION”

By Mark Denny (University of Hawai‘i Press; $29.99)

Narrated in a playful, airy tone that suits its free-flying subjects, Mark Denny’s “Long Hops: Making Sense of Bird Migration” is a serious, comprehensive treatment of all that is known, surmised and debated about how and why so many species of birds travel enormous distances, maintaining winter and summer homes.

Included are birds that travel north-south on the American, European and Asian continents and, of course, ocean crossers such as the kolea, or Pacific golden plover. The apapane and iiwi find mention here, along with other songbirds and seabirds, from warblers and purple martins to albatrosses, arctic terns, blackbirds and robins. Short as well as long, and individual as well as flock migrations are considered.

The isolation of our archipelago makes Hawaii’s avian migrants perfect examples of the whole staggering phenomenon. Writes Denny: “By drawing attention to Hawaiian migrants, I am emphasizing the central puzzle of bird migration: How on earth do they do it?”

Birds are navigators, he reminds us. Ergo, it makes sense that birds have better senses than we do. They can see the geomagnetic field and “not only a wider range of colors but also finer gradations between different hues.”

He also reveals that birds aren’t as set in their patterns as we might think: They do vary their routes. “For migrants, particularly the long-hop ones, the world is a smaller place than it is for us.” It’s also a rapidly altering world, and Denny examines the challenges migrants face due to climate change.

Then there’s bird psychology. “Which is home for a migrating bird: her summer breeding grounds or her wintering grounds?” Read this stirring, delightful book and find out.