The Bird: A Natural History of Who Birds Are, Where They Came From, and How They Live

An excellent book. After an introduction to evolution and bird physiology and an overview of species, it gives information on mating, child rearing, migration, feeding and social structure. A nice mix, primarily of science, but with a bit of philosophy for good measure

Colin Tudge's The Bird: A Natural History of Who Birds Are, Where They Came From, and How They Live (Crown, 2008) has to be one of the oddest books I've read in a while. It reminded me a bit some of Richard Fortey's stuff, with its mix of scientific jargon and witty, anecdotal banter. There were parts of it that got a bit dry, but on the whole it was an amusing survey of bird evolution, lifestyles, and taxonomy.

Mostly I enjoyed this book, although the sharp transitions from dry scientific exposition to breezy asides sort of threw me for a loop. This is, I suppose, one of the dangers in trying to write popular science books: you want the reader to feel like he's learning something, but not like he's reading a textbook. It's a delicate show more balance.

I found Tudge's final chapter, which serves as a sort of call to arms on conservation funding and efforts, the most compelling section of the book, and I'm sure for people who are looking for a (mostly) accessible introduction to ornithology this would probably serve quite nicely.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2010/10/book-review-bird.html show less

With some 200 bird books in my natural history library, The Bird will remain on the top of the heap. A beautifully written, fascinating history of these feathered creatures.

I love birds and love reading about them but this book was just okay. The author repeats himself a lot (especially "some birds are more equal than others" and especially this phrase in the first chapter. It was fun at first but it quickly just got annoying). This book had some fun anecdotes but it was missing something and could have used some references as he keeps crossing the line between fact and opinion without stating where it changes. Especially since he states at the start that he is not actually scientist. He does provide a (partial?) reference list at the end but some statements really need the study/studies backing them up in the text itself. I don't have time to go through all of them to fact check and find out what has been show more shown and what he thinks.

Also, I don't really understand the need for such a long list of bird families. He really didn't provide much information about most of them. I also wonder how much the editors actually read this part in detail as I had a look at the starlings (since I have spent a lot of time studying them) and after about two sentences he says - but more on this later. This family is only briefly mentioned once or twice more in the book. I didn't see anything factually incorrect in the parts I did read (based on the then data since things have changed a bit since then) but small things like this bothered me.

While not bad and I'm sure bird lovers will still enjoy this book, I would recommend reading other books on bird behaviour over this one. show less

This book is incredible! The subtitle says it's about who birds are, where they came from and how they live - it does all of that and more!

The book is full of fascinating little pieces about individual birds. This is a book to savour - the richness of the stories, descriptions of the birds and what they get up and why is inspiring. I want to go through the whole book highlighting paragraphs! I guarantee that there would be more text highlighted than left unmarked!

The chapter: All the Birds in the world: An annotated cast list took a lot of reading but will become a superb reference work. The chapter on the Mind of Birds was the biggest highlight for me in a book full of highlights!

Buy this book, read this book and treasure this book - show more an outstanding piece of work! show less

A wonderful survey of the natural history of birds. The sections on the evolution of birds were particularly enlightening - in terms of their historical evolutionary relationships and what it means in terms of their similarities to and differences from with mammals. You come away with a real sense of the uniqueness and magnificence of birdlife.

Too pedantic for me. Definitely picked up some interesting bits about the life and history of birds. The amusing asides mostly were distracting.