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    The Meaning of Birds
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    The Meaning of Birds
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    The Meaning of Birds
    Ebook351 pages5 hours

    The Meaning of Birds

    By Simon Barnes

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    One of our most eloquent nature writers offers a passionate and informative celebration of birds and their ability to help us understand the world we live in. As well as exploring how birds achieve the miracle of flight; why birds sing; what they tell us about the seasons of the year and what their presence tells us about the places they inhabit, The Wisdom of Birds muses on the uses of feathers, the drama of raptors, the slaughter of pheasants, the infidelities of geese, and the strangeness of feeling sentimental about blue tits while enjoying a chicken sandwich.

    From the mocking-birds of the Galapagos who guided Charles Darwin toward his evolutionary theory, to the changing patterns of migration that alert us to the reality of contemporary climate change, Simon Barnes explores both the intrinsic wonder of what it is to be a bird – and the myriad ways in which birds can help us understand the meaning of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHead of Zeus
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781784970697
    Unavailable
    The Meaning of Birds
    Author

    Simon Barnes

    Simon Barnes is the author of many wild volumes, including the bestselling Bad Birdwatcher trilogy, Rewild Yourself, On The Marsh and The History of the World in 100 Animals. He is a council member of World Land Trust, trustee of Conservation South Luangwa and patron of Save the Rhino. In 2014, he was awarded the Rothschild Medal for services to conservation. He lives in Norfolk with his family and horses, where he manages several acres for wildlife. He was the Chief Sports Writer for The Times until 2014, having worked for the paper for 30 years. 

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    Reviews for The Meaning of Birds

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    • 4/5
      Birds are all around us, they are the wild creatures that we encounter every day. They have fascinated us for millennia with their mastery of the air and ability to produce the most beautiful songs. In this book, Barnes wants us to pause and consider just how much we rely on them and them on us. Covering all manner of topics, from the way that their feathers enable them to fly, how they define the seasons, their ability to navigate huge distances across the planet and how they have fed and clothed us from time immemorial.

      Science owes a lot to birds as well. Darwin’s observations of birds in the Galapagos gave us the theory of evolution; engineers have studied the way that albatrosses can fly over 600 miles in a day with scarcely a flap to improve the performance of wings. Climate scientists study migration patterns and times to see glimpse the subtle changes that climate change is having. It is packed full of fascinating details and anecdotes on birds, like how the feathers can be light, waterproof and enable flight, and a subtly different feather can be the most efficient insulator we know. Modern technology helped us discover the hidden sounds in the songs and the precise speed of the Peregrines stoop.

      Barnes has given us a well written, heartfelt book about the wonders of birds. It is a broadbrush look at the world of birds and the subjects are varied as the birds you can discover through your binocluars. This book will make you smile too, as nestled in amongst the science and facts is a tongue-in-cheek humour like the irony of tucking into a chicken sandwich when watching birds.. Throughout the book are lots of fine line drawings taken from Eighteenth century bird books, and I think that this lifts it from being another book about our feathered friends to make it a real pleasure to read. It is a book that can be dipped into without losing anything, and most importantly conveys his deep passion for his subject. Great stuff.
    • 4/5
      A rambling, friendly, engaging celebration of birds: their flight, their colors, their feathers, their songs, their history, their places in the world and why some of us love them so. Even - and perhaps especially - when we cannot own or possess them, and don't even want to. Did you know that a wren sings 103 separate notes in an 8-second song? Or that in early medieval New Zealand there were no native mammals (not even us) except three species of bat? And when the humans finally got there, it was inhabited already by eagles used to hunting bipedal moa birds bigger than the humans?

      Barnes, a gifted and knowledgeable writer, drops short paragraphed tidbits about all sorts of bird-related things - some lovely, some angry, some awe-inspiring, charming, and always, always loving. There is some contradiction on the old how-fast-can-a-peregrine-falcon-stoop question, a bit of repetition here and there. As a British birder who has travelled extensively in Africa and Asia, Barnes focuses heavily on birds this American birder has never seen, so it took me just a few pages to bring in the iPad to Google up the birds he mentions. The book is illustrated solely with engravings from an old British bird history volume - handsome and interesting to be sure, but you really do need to see what a carmine bee-eater looks like. He can be funny, lyrical, and grim by turns, but concludes with vignettes of hope and admiration. A delightful book which should please anyone who has some passion for birds, and also anyone who just enjoys the robin (American or European) in their back yard (or garden).