Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, From Cave Art to Conservation by Tim Birkhead

 

Summary (from the publisher): Since the dawn of human history, birds have stirred our imagination, inspiring and challenging our ideas about science, faith, art and philosophy.

Looking to the skies above, we have variously worshipped them as gods, hunted them for sustenance, adorned ourselves in their feathers, studied their wings to engineer flight and, more recently, attempted to protect them.

In Birds and Us, award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on an epic and dazzling journey through this mutual history with birds, from the ibises mummified and deified by Ancient Egyptians to Renaissance experiments on woodpecker anatomy, from Victorian obsessions with egg collecting to the present fight to save endangered species and restore their habitats.

Weaving in stories from his own life as a scientist, including far-flung expeditions to wondrous Neolithic caves in Spain and the bustling guillemot colonies of the Faroe Islands, this rich and fascinating book is the culmination of a lifetime's research and unforgettably shows how birds shaped us, and how we have shaped them.

Review: This delightful history traces human interactions with birds across millennia from Neolithic cave paintings to current bird watching and conservation efforts. Throughout the journey, the author's knowledge and genuine affection and interest in birds is deeply apparent. 

With a talented ornithologist as guide, this book begins at the dawn of human history and explores the multitude of ways that humans and birds' lives have intersected. Humans have worshipped birds, hunted them, used them for adornment and embellishment, studied them to glean insight into flight, and in recent years sought to protect them. I particularly loved the descriptions of ancient cave paintings of birds, the discussion of mummified bird remains in ancient Egypt, the overview of falconry in medieval Europe, and interesting tidbits about parrots. 

The inclusion of the author's own research and history with birds only served to add to the appeal of this book. Like many survey type books of this nature, it chooses to span a vast topic rather than focus on a narrow sub-view of the subject. As a result, the reader gets to learn a bit about a great deal. This functions well in this book and provides a big picture look at different interactions with birds over thousands of years. But anyone looking for an exhaustive exploration of any of the many time periods or topics covered here might be disappointed. I listened to the audiobook version of this text, which was narrated by the author. Not only was his personal narration lovely, but each chapter opened with a different bird call, which truly delighted me. 

Stars: 4