Robbins Jim. The Wonder of Birds: What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future

New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2018. — 352 p. — ISBN13: 978-0812983760.Our relationship to birds is different from our relationship to any other wild creatures. They are found virtually everywhere and we love to watch them, listen to them, keep them as pets, wear their feathers, even converse with them. Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically; draw us out into nature to seek their beauty; and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body. And they even have much to teach us about being human in the natural world.This book illuminates qualities unique to birds that demonstrate just how invaluable they are to humankind — both ecologically and spiritually. The wings of turkey buzzards influenced the Wright brothers’ flight design; the chickadee’s song is considered by scientists to be the most sophisticated language in the animal world and a “window into the evolution of our own language and our society”; and the quietly powerful presence of eagles in the disadvantaged neighborhood of Anacostia, in Washington, D.C., proved to be an effective method for rehabilitating the troubled young people placed in charge of their care. Exploring both cutting-edge scientific research and our oldest cultural beliefs, Robbins moves these astonishing creatures from the background of our lives to the foreground, from the quotidian to the miraculous, showing us that we must fight to save imperiled bird populations and the places they live, for the sake of both the planet and humankind.What Birds Tell Us About the Natural World
Birds: The Dinosaurs That Made It
Hummingbirds: The Magic of Flight
Canaries and Black-Backed Woodpeckers: Birds as Flying Sentinels
A Murmuring of Birds: The Extraordinary Design of the Flock
The Gifts of Birds
The Power of a Feather
From Egg to Table, Part One: The Chicken
From Egg to Table, Part Two: Wild Birds
The Miracle of Guano
Nature's Cleanup Crew
Discovering Ourselves Through Birds
Bird Brain, Human Brain
The Surprisingly Astute Minds of Ravens and Crows
The Secret Language of Birds
The Bee-eaters: A Modern Family
Extreme Physiologies: Birds, the Ultimate Athletes
Birds and the Hope for a Better Future
Nature's Hired Men: Putting Birds to Work
The City Bird: From Sidewalk to Sky
The Transformational Power of Birds
Birds as Social Workers
Expanding Our Senses
Epilogue: The Future of Birds