The Wisdom Of Birds, By Tim Birkhead
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.In the tradition of the greatest naturalist writers, Birkhead makes his area fascinating to those who have only a mild interest.
Written in a most approachable style – Birkhead notes that we can spot the chalazae (strands that secure the yolk in an egg) "in cooked scrambled egg where they appear as unappetising nodules" – this thematic history of ornithology begins with his hero, the 17th century academic John Ray who threw out Aristotle's classification system and asked how do birds conceive and why do they lay hard-shelled eggs?
Successively exploring instinct, migration, the breeding cycle, territory and much more, every page of this book tells you something new about human perception of birds. The enthralling text is matched by the illustrations.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments