I have also have read The Wisdom of Birds and found it excellent. Might have to
buy Ten Thousand Birds and see for myself. At AUD 48.51, it is not that big an
investment.
Carl Clifford
> On 19 May 2014, at 12:14, Murray Lord <> wrote:
>
> Dear John / everyone,
>
> I was thinking of posting a review of this book too, but I was going to say I
> think it is an excellent book which I strongly recommend!
>
> I’ve previously read The Wisdom of Birds by the lead author, Tim Birkhead.
> This book takes a similar approach; it is a historical study of how our
> understanding of various areas of ornithological knowledge has developed over
> time. It covers a variety of areas ranging from taxonomy and the
> relationship between birds and dinosaurs, through to migration and group
> ecology. In the introduction they say they started planning the book by
> asking a number of scientists who they regarded the most influential
> ornithologists of the twentieth century. The top ten are all featured to
> various degrees in the book, particularly the top names such as David Lack,
> Ernst Mayr and Niko Tinbergen. But it was interesting to see how many of the
> results and theories of those top ten are now seen as wrong or at least
> grossly oversimplified.
>
> I found the mixture of big picture overview and personal anecdotes from key
> players made an effective and engaging story. I can understand your
> criticism and yes there were a couple of areas where I’d have liked more
> detail to be provided. But I didn’t find that distracted my overall positive
> impression.
>
> Anyway, people can have a look at their website, www.myriadbirds.com and read
> the samples. They are planning on posting the audio recordings of their
> interviews with various ornithologists on the website in the next few months,
> which I am looking forward to.
>
> Murray Lord
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