Book Review: The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher as part of a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. I received an Advance Reading Copy and there may be changes in the final edition.
As the title states, this is a book about the behavior of birds. Mr. Strycker is a field researcher with a specialty in birds, so most of the chapters have stories of his personal experiences with the type of birds mentioned. Each chapter covers a different type of bird and an interesting topic about it, from the ability of homing pigeons to find their way, through the pecking order of chickens to albatross monogamy.
Some of the topics will be familiar to anyone who paid attention in biology class, but others have up to the year research with new implications. For example, the chapter on starlings explains how mathematics, physics and computer modeling have advanced our knowledge of flock behavior. Many of the chapters do tie back into possible ties or comparisons to human behavior and biology.
It’s fascinating stuff, and is written in a casual, easy to read style. The book should be suitable for bright junior high students on up to non-ornithologist adults who enjoy watching or reading about birds. However, the casual style carries over to the end notes, and there is no index. Serious ornithology students will want to dig for more rigorously cited works to please their professors. Each topic has a bird drawing by Janet Hansen.
Please be advised that this book does cover biological functions of birds and nature red in tooth and claw, so may not be suitable for sensitive children.
I recommend this book to bird lovers and science-minded readers.
