Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird - Hardcover

Birkhead, Tim

4.07

1,536 ratings by Goodreads

9780802779663: Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802779662 ISBN 13: 9780802779663

Publisher: Walker & Co, 2012

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Most people would love to be able to fly like a bird, but few of us are aware of the other sensations that make being a bird a gloriously unique experience. What is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? How do desert birds detect rain hundreds of kilometers away? How do birds navigate by using an innate magnetic compass?

Tracing the history of how our knowledge about birds has grown, particularly through advances in technology over the past fifty years, Bird Sense tells captivating stories about how birds interact with one another and their environment. More advanced testing methods have debunked previously held beliefs, such as female starlings selecting mates based on how symmetrical the male's plumage markings are. (Whereas females can discern the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical markings, they are not very good at detecting small differences among symmetrically marked males!)

Never before has there been a popular book about how intricately bird behavior is shaped by birds' senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of fieldwork experiences, insights, and a unique understanding of birds, all firmly grounded in science. No one who reads Bird Sense can fail to be dazzled by it.

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Review:

Touching (The Sunday Times Books of the Year)

An absolutely absorbing book. On almost every page there is an astonishing observation or revelation. ***** (Daily Telegraph)

Combining a wealth of bird facts with a winning modesty in the face of these creatures' essential mysteriousness, Bird Sense is a richly persuasive volume. This fascinating book has much to teach us, not just about what it means to be a bird, but about the rewards and responsibilities of our coexistence with these wonderful creatures (Guardian, Books of the Year)

We'll never know what it's really like to be a bird but Tim Birkhead's readable book takes us as far as science can take us, through an examination of how birds see, hear, smell and taste their world (Peter Marren, Independent Books of the Year)

An eye-opening guide to all matters ornithological ... His tour of the frontiers of our understanding of birds is stuffed with mind-boggling facts and insights. Thoroughly engaging, it also gives us a thrilling sense of the vast, unmapped territories that lie beyond, waiting to be discovered (Sunday Times)

Chirpy and fascinating study about the mysteries of bird behaviour (Sunday Times 'Must Reads')

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be a bird then Tim Birkhead's wonderful book Bird Sense looks at the sensory apparatus of birds and how they interpret the world (Choice)

Inspired ... bringing together of all the latest scientific research on avian sight, sound, touch and taste as well as smell, along with some senses which are beyond human capabilities altogether ... if you pick up Bird Sense, however wise you think you are, you'll learn something new (Independent)

Combining a wealth of bird facts with a winning modesty in the face of these creatures' essential mysteriousness, Bird Sense is a richly persuasive volume ... This fascinating book has much to teach us, not just about what it means to be a bird, but about the rewards and responsibilities of our coexistence with these wonderful creatures (Guardian)

The effect of his brisk but sparklingly lucid pages is to refocus the point of view on to us and force a rethink as to what it's like to be a human sharing the earth with such wonderfully different and yet recognisably similar animals (Tim Dee, Observer)

A collective portrait of birds that is deeply stirring and inspires awe at our own species and its capacity for such intense curiosity (Wall Street Journal)

Like astronomy, ornithology is a science to which amateurs have made authentic contributions. Today, however, the divide between amateurs and professionals in ornithology appears to be deepening, as the professionals revolutionize our understanding of the ornithological family tree and of bird behaviour by employing cellular biology and the chemistry of DNA. Tim Birkhead, professor of behavioral ecology at the University of Sheffield, in Britain, has a remarkable capacity to bridge the gap ... His skill lies in the way he poses his questions (Robert O. Paxton, New York Review of Books)

No book has made me want to quote incredible facts about the feathered creatures that inhabit our planet quite like Tim Birkhead's masterpiece Bird Sense. Be prepared to be amazed (Sunday Express)

Book Description:

A hugely engaging book about birds, their senses and behaviour that is informed by an attractive blend of personal experience, entertaining stories and cutting-edge science.

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