From the author of the National Book Award Finalist The Soul of an
Octopus. Meet the ladies: a flock of smart, affectionate, highly
individualistic chickens who visit their favorite neighbors, devise
different ways to hide from foxes, and mob the author like she's a
rock star. In these pages you'll also meet Maya and Zuni, two
orphaned baby hummingbirds who hatched from eggs the size of navy
beans, and who are little more than air bubbles fringed with
feathers. Their lives hang precariously in the balance--but with
human help, they may one day conquer the sky. Snowball is a
cockatoo whose dance video went viral on YouTube and who's now
teaching schoolchildren how to dance. You'll meet Harris's hawks
named Fire and Smoke. And you'll come to know and love a host of
other avian characters who will change your mind forever about who
birds really are. Each of these birds shows a different and utterly
surprising aspect of what makes a bird a bird--and these are the
lessons of Birdology: that birds are far stranger, more wondrous,
and at the same time more like us than we might have dared to
imagine. In Birdology, beloved author of The Good Good Pig Sy
Montgomery explores the essence of the otherworldly creatures we
see every day. By way of her adventures with seven birds--wild,
tame, exotic, and common--she weaves new scientific insights and
narrative to reveal seven kernels of bird wisdom. The first lesson
of Birdology is that, no matter how common they are, Birds Are
Individuals, as each of Montgomery's distinctive Ladies clearly
shows. In the leech-infested rain forest of Queensland, you'll come
face to face with a cassowary--a 150-pound, man-tall, flightless
bird with a helmet of bone on its head and a slashing razor-like
toenail with which it (occasionally) eviscerates people--proof that
Birds Are Dinosaurs. You'll learn from hawks that Birds Are Fierce;
from pigeons, how Birds Find Their Way Home; from parrots, what it
means that Birds Can Talk; and from 50,000 crows who moved into a
small city's downtown, that Birds Are Everywhere. They are the
winged aliens who surround us. Birdology explains just how very
other birds are: Their hearts look like those of crocodiles. They
are covered with modified scales, which are called feathers. Their
bones are hollow. Their bodies are permeated with extensive air
sacs. They have no hands. They give birth to eggs. Yet despite
birds' and humans' disparate evolutionary paths, we share emotional
and intellectual abilities that allow us to communicate and even
form deep bonds. When we begin to comprehend who birds really are,
we deepen our capacity to approach, understand, and love these
otherworldly creatures. And this, ultimately, is the priceless
lesson of Birdology: it communicates a heartfelt fascination and
awe for birds and restores our connection to these complex,
mysterious fellow creatures.
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