Loved this book. It explores intersections between humans and birds. The illustrations are lovely, but I kept my iPad handy so I could hear and see the birds that occur throughout ( )

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). ( )

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. ( )