Birds and Us: A 12,000-Year History from Cave Art to Conservation

by Tim Birkhead

Overview

From award-winning author and ornithologist Tim Birkhead, a sweeping history of the long and close relationship between birds and humans

Since the dawn of human history, birds have stirred our imagination, inspiring and challenging our ideas about science, faith, art, and philosophy. We have worshipped birds as gods, hunted them for sustenance, adorned ourselves with 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 a dazzling epic journey through our mutual history with birds, from the ibises mummified and deified by Ancient Egyptians to the Renaissance fascination with woodpecker anatomy—and from the Victorian obsession with egg collecting to today’s fight to save endangered species and restore their habitats.

Spanning continents and millennia, Birds and Us chronicles the beginnings of a written history of birds in ancient Greece and Rome, the obsession with falconry in the Middle Ages, and the development of ornithological science. Moving to the twentieth century, the book tells the story of the emergence of birdwatching and the field study of birds, and how they triggered an extraordinary flowering of knowledge and empathy for birds, eventually leading to today’s massive worldwide interest in birds—and the realization of the urgent need to save them.

Weaving in stories from Birkhead’s life as 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 an unforgettable account of how birds have shaped us, and how we have shaped them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691239941
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/09/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	117 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tim Birkhead is an award-winning author and one of the world’s leading bird biologists. He is the coauthor of Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin (Princeton) and the author of The Wonderful Mr. Willughby: The First True Ornithologist, The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg, and Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird, among other books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Sheffield.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Plates xiii

Preface xvii

1 Of Peculiar Interest: Neolithic Birds 1

2 Inside the Catacombs: The Birds of Ancient Egypt 20

3 Talking Birds: The Beginnings of Science in Greece and Rome 39

4 Manly Pursuits: Hunting and Conspicuous Consumption 65

5 Renaissance Thinking: The Parts of Birds 95

6 The New World of Science: Francis Willughby and John Ray Discover Birds 119

7 Depending on Birds: Inconspicuous Consumption 157

8 The End of God in Birds: Darwin and Ornithology 192

9 A Dangerous Type of Bigamy: Killing Time 223

10 Watching Birds: And Seeing the Light 254

11 A Boom in Bird Studies: Behaviour, Evolution and Ecology 278

12 Ghost of the Great Auk: Third Mass Extinction 301

Epilogue 329

List of Birds Mentioned in the Text 339

Acknowledgements 347

Notes 351

Bibliography 385

Index 413

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Tim Birkhead is one of Britain’s leading zoologists, yet he skillfully bridges the gap between scientists and nonscientists.”—Stephen Moss, author of Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names

“Birkhead’s approach to writing—hard, clear sentences; deep, revelatory looking—has the same effect as his microscope, making us see the familiar with new eyes.”—Alex Preston, author of As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds and Books

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/20/2022

Ornithologist Birkhead (Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird) delivers a master class in this fascinating look at humans’ evolving relationship with birds, tracking over the course of 12 millennia as birds went from being the objects of art and veneration to sources of food and sport, and the current subject of study and conservation. In ancient Egypt, for example, four million Sacred Ibises were mummified, then found in the early 1800s: “bird mummies served four different purposes: preserving the birds as food, as pets for deceased humans, as gods to be revered and as votive offerings.” Other sections delve into the medieval obsession with falconry, the study of birds’ biology during a natural history boom in the Victorian era, and contemporary bird-dependent societies on the Faroe Islands. Portraits of key players in ornithology enrich the narrative, among them Edmund Selous, who near the end of the 19th century led the shift from killing birds for study to bird-watching as a serious intellectual pursuit, an activity that garnered empathy for the creatures. Birkhead clearly knows his terrain, and his writing is vivid and occasionally funny: “There’s also the ammonia-rich aroma of sea-bird shit (which I love, by the way).” This is a must-read for nature lovers. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Birkhead shows how, across history, [birds] have continually captured our imaginations."—-Matthew Broaddus, Publishers Weekly

"An enjoyable book."—-Margaret Henderson, Library Journal

"Tim Birkhead’s book succeeds at being both an excellent history book and an informative nature guide."—-Matthew Benzing, Foreword Reviews

"[A] captivating, informative, novel, and thought-provoking historical treatment of one of the oldest and strongest bonds connecting humankind with the natural world."—-John W. Fitzpatrick, Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher

06/01/2022

Award-winning ornithologist Birkhead (The Most Perfect Thing: Inside [and Outside] a Bird's Egg) has written nearly a dozen books on birds. This title examines how humans have interacted with birds throughout history through the lens of artwork. Birkhead takes an engaging look at the art of birds from Paleolithic times to the present, looking at the ways humans have viewed birds as gods, food, commodities, adornment, inspiration for flight, and finally, as creatures to be protected (possibly encouraged by the popularity of bird-watching). Along the way, Birkhead introduces readers to an array of explorers, archeologists, conservationists, natural historians, and artists who have been inspired by birds and bird art. He also includes anecdotes from his own career in ornithology. VERDICT Includes a list of birds mentioned, extensive notes and bibliography, and an excellent index. An enjoyable book for those interested in birds or art.—Margaret Henderson

Library Journal

★ 2022-05-12
A study of birds as inspiration, enlightenment, and food.

Melding science, natural history, memoir, and travelogue, ornithologist Birkhead offers a commodious history of humans’ connection to birds, from prehistoric times to the current burgeoning interest in bird-watching. He begins in southern Spain, where depictions of more than 200 birds were discovered in Neolithic caves. This “birthplace of bird study” raises the question of the artists’ motivation: Do the images represent totemism, suggesting that birds were worshipped? Did the artists pay homage to birds prized for food? Did the images serve as a kind of field guide? In ancient Egypt, mummified birds were found in catacombs, preserved as food, pets for the deceased, or votive offerings. Birkhead examines early interest in investigating birds (by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, for example); falconry as pastime, an “expensive, time-consuming” indulgence of aristocrats; and the medieval veneration of birds as “hovering midway between heaven and earth, half angels, half animals,” which can be deduced from the appearance of birds in religious paintings. As prey—sometimes for food, sometimes for sport—bird populations often have been decimated. Tudor England fostered an “unthinking persecution of wildlife” that included birds seen as “vermin.” In the late 1950s, Mao Zedong set off mass killings of sparrows, blamed for stealing grain. The 17th century saw a marked interest in scientific investigation, resulting in a proliferation of description, collection, and illustration of birds. Victorians paradoxically cherished birds, enjoying a vogue for caged songbirds but also for amassing specimens of birds, skins, and eggs. From acorn woodpeckers to zebra finches, Birkhead examines bird habitat, behavior, cultural meaning, and physiology in species around the world. He creates engaging portraits of the often eccentric individuals involved in bird investigations and reports on some exotic uses of birds for food—flamingos’ fatty tongues, for example, roast peacock, and fattened herons. This beautifully produced volume is replete with drawings, photographs, maps, and vivid color plates.

A fascinating, authoritative avian history.

Kirkus Reviews