Description

Award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on an epic and dazzling journey through this mutual history with birds.

Since the dawn of human history, birds have stirred our imagination, inspiring and challenging our ideas about science, faith, art and philosophy, from the ibises mummified by Ancient Egyptians and Renaissance experiments on the woodpecker to the Victorian obsessions with egg collecting and our present fight to save endangered species.

Weaving in stories from his own life as a scientist, 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.

‘Thought-provoking at every turn, this inspiring, shocking, wonder-filled exploration of our relationship with birds’ Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

‘A fascinating book about the close and often surprising relationship between birds and people’ Stephen Moss

Publisher Review

'Tim Birkhead is an eminent scientific ornithologist and a masterful science communicator. Birds and Us wings its way through 12,000 years of our species' engagement with the avian world. He tells it all with delightful gusto, plaiting personal encounters (with birds and bird-people) with challenging historical research and bewitching scientific rigor' -- Tim Dee 'Thought-provoking at every turn, this inspiring, shocking, wonder-filled exploration of our relationship with birds from earliest times delivers a sobering challenge to us living with birds today' -- Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'A fascinating book about the close and often surprising relationship between birds and people, written by one of our leading ornithologists' -- Stephen Moss 'A compelling combination of first-hand experiences, human stories, birdlore and scientific puzzles that take us through a 12,000-year pageant to the present day...the whole narrative fizzes with his infectious enthusiasm, curiosity and energy' -- Jeremy Mynott * TLS * '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 'A brilliant and passionate celebration - how birds enrich our lives and now, more than ever, depend on us' -- Nick Davies, author of Cuckoo 'Justly acclaimed for his brilliance at explaining complex science in a beguilingly lively style' * BBC Wildlife *