Product Description

Based on the spectacular ten-part program on PBS, The Life of Birds is David Attenborough at his characteristic best: presenting the drama, beauty, and eccentricities of the natural world with unusual flair and intelligence. The renowned writer and filmmaker treks through rain forests and deserts, through city streets and isolated wilderness, to bring us an illuminating panorama of every aspect of birds' lives--from their songs to their search for food, from their eggs and nests to their mastery of the air. Beautifully illustrated with more than a hundred color photographs, the book will delight and inform both bird lovers and any general reader with an interest in nature.

Attenborough begins at the beginning: reviewing ideas about how and when creatures first took to the air--and why ostriches, kiwis, and other flightless birds later returned to the ground. He introduces us to the marvels of flight. We encounter the albatross, which can soar for hours without flapping its wings; hummingbirds that beat their wings two hundred times a minute; and the swift, which eats, sleeps, and mates in mid-air. We read about birds' extraordinary methods of hunting and gathering--about crows that use twigs and leaves to hook and harpoon insects, and eagles that can stamp venomous snakes to death. Attenborough explains why and how birds sing and why many have such dazzling plumage. He reviews courtship and mating strategies, including the extravagant dances of cranes and the bizarre and ornate pavilions that male bowerbirds build to attract females. We learn how birds defend their young against predators. Attenborough explains how birds have colonized the globe more effectively than any other vertebrates, adapting to Antarctic winters and African summers, to vast oceans and the densest, most polluted cities. He also outlines the threat that humans pose to many species, showing how we have already driven many to extinction.

The book presents birds in all their complexity and glory, revealing in clear and elegant prose Attenborough's infectious sense of wonder about the rich variety of life on Earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40068 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
Tireless explorer of the natural world and wide-ranging traveler, documentary filmmaker and writer David Attenborough has delighted readers and viewers with such productions as Life on Earth and The Living Planet. In this companion to a 10-part PBS series of the same name, Attenborough examines the ways of bird species from prehistoric times to the present, writing, as he admits, from the viewpoint of an amateur with a particular interest in animal behavior. (Those who can distinguish a bird at sight or by song possess a skill, he writes, "which I greatly admire, but one, alas, that I do not possess.") That amateur passion yields a fine overview of avian biology, as Attenborough turns to such matters as the antiquity of birds, which have dominated the air for some 150 million years, and the adaptation of birds to every ecosystem on the planet--for no obstacle, from huge mountains to wide oceans, has been able to stop their colonizing the whole of the globe, including the artificial deserts of major cities, where pigeons and peregrines rule. Graced with 180 color photographs, Attenborough's book will delight birdwatchers, students of animal behavior, and admirers of good writing alike. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
European swifts sleep and mate in midair. The lammergeier, a vulture, eats large bones, "like a circus sword-swallower." The male sungrebe carries his young in tiny pouches akin to "saddlebags." These are just a few of the delightful avian minutiae to be culled from eminent naturalist Attenborough's latest book, a highly readable and vibrantly photographed survey of bird behavior. With a careful hand, Attenborough (The Private Life of Plants) takes readers around the world, offering vivid descriptions of eating habits, flight, communication, mating, parenthood and environmental adaptability. The shearwater in Japan must launch itself from a treetop in order to get off the ground; Attenborough compares the shape of its wing to "a comma lying on its side... the almost magical device that keeps a bird in the air." Ample color photos illustrate the quirks of evolution that Attenborough playfully describes and highlight the scope of his project. Sandgrouse fill up at a desert watering hole in South Africa and penguins cavort on an iceberg. Indeed, the pictures themselves are a marvel and will have readers wondering more than once: "How did they get that shot?" Just as, perhaps, they may wonder how Attenborough has been able to gather such myriad fascinating discoveries of nature (he acknowledges the contributions of professionals and "masochistic" amateurs). Notably, this is not a long book. But it is an extraordinarily rich one. FYI: An accompanying 10-part PBS series will air in 1999.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The indefatigable Attenborough (The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man, 1987, etc.), the driving force behind many nature documentaries, has written a book to accompany his forthcoming 10-part PBS series on the varied, complex, and fascinating world of birds, which will air in the spring of 1999. Attenborough is a lively writer, and his facile style is perfectly suited to presenting, with a minimum of complexity, a maximum of information. Ranging around the globe for his examples, Attenborough succinctly describes bird evolution, the mechanics of flight, patterns of adaptation to varied environments, courtship and nest-building behavior, and the rearing of young, among other topics. Whatever element of bird life he is describing, Attenborough's emphasis throughout is on behavior, and it's clear that he admires the abilities of birds to adapt to even the harshest climates. Experienced amateur ornithologists are unlikely to find anything new here, but the volume does offer a useful (and superbly illustrated) introduction to bird life for those with little background in the field. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Exceptionally informative!
I found The Life of Birds very enjoyable and informative. The author took the trouble to break the information down into a logical set of chapter topics, and the photos are a pleasure to study, especially after reading the accompanying insightful text. I have plenty of good guides to North American birds, but none of my other books have the worldwide scope that this book does, highlighting both the similarities and differences in various species means of handling a given survival skill. Well done! (I enjoyed the subtle humour too!)

This is another fascinating read from David Attenborough.
The Life of Birds is another fascinating read from David Attenborough. I chose this book solely because he wrote it, not because I was looking for a book about birds. When I came across the book I knew it would be beautifully written and extremely interesting:and it is. Anyone who read and savored The Living Planet will find The Life of Birds to be equally fascinating. The photographs are of the highest caliber. This book can be read and re-read and it will always be interesting. It is a wonderful book to share with children as well. Young one's can benefit from looking at the pictures and having an adult simplify the text. This book is an excellent addition to the home library.

An indispensable book for any bird lover
As someone who has had a lifelong fascination with birds, I bought this book more for the photographs than anything else. After all, I knew everything about them already, right? Well, boy, was I put in my place! I learned things about these enigmatic creatures that I never would have imagined. One of the reasons this book is so enjoyable is the fact that Mr. Attenborough makes his own awe at the sheer wonder that birds are readily apparent, rather than speaking from the lofty heights of so many of his contemporaries. It's almost as if he is sharing his journey with the reader, and the two are making these discoveries together. And the hundreds of color photographs are incomparable, almost heartbreaking in their beauty. To make a long story short: if you love birds, then you MUST have this book. Period. Thanks, Mr. Attenborough!