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How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity: A Book Review by a Non-Science Person

10,000 Birds

Doug Futuyma believes in science and in the scientific basis of evolution. How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity by Douglas J. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a very different kind of book than popular books about bird behavior, which rely on story as much as science.

Science 206
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What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Jennifer Ackerman points out in the introduction to What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds , that we don’t know much, but that very soon we may know a lot more. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read.

Owls 203
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Turtles of the World: A Guide To Every Family–A Book Review by a Turtle Lover

10,000 Birds

I happen to be particularly fond of turtles because my family has taken care of a small box turtle for 30 years (beware–turtles are extremely low-maintenance pets but will outlast your child’s youth and probably your life). Or that tortoises and terrapins are considered part of the turtle family. Lovich and Whit Gibbons.

Turtles 191
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Here’s the new bird family tree. It’s amazing.

10,000 Birds

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. 2014), presents an authoritative framework for our understanding of and future work on bird phylogeny. American Flamingo photo by Dick Culbert). Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279
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The Bird Way: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

For one thing, we become more aware of cultural biases in our science (new findings on warbling female birds, for example, reveal both gender and geographic biases). Many popular science books have neither. As Ackerman explains in her Introduction, studying extreme behavior brings new insight into what we think we know.

Research 215
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What It’s Like to Be a Bird: A Review of the New Sibley Book

10,000 Birds

This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives. This was a pleasant surprise if only because I’m so used to the more technical views presented in his field guides.

2020 263
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Rename All Birds Named After White People

10,000 Birds

John Porter McCown, who shot the first recorded specimen of this species known to Euro-American science, was a Confederate general, a high-ranking officer in the insurrection led by the southern plantocracy to preserve and expand Slavery and the mode of white supremacy which it supported. Well, no more!

Birds 260