Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation
by Tim Birkhead
Viking 2022, £25, 441 pages
Our relationship with birds has changed and this book entertainingly explains how, from neolithic cave paintings and Egyptian veneration to today’s “behavioural ecology” or “real science”, when increasing “empathy” – a key word – in our avian understanding is aided by plastic rings, satellite transmitters, electrophysiology, thermal cameras and DNA analysis, as technology advances.
Aristotle particularly liked birds, “probably because they are similar to us in many ways. They walk on two legs, they have excellent eyesight and hearing, and their ability to sing – and in some cases to speak – sets them apart from other organisms”. The ornithologist Pierre Belon’s 1555 engraving demonstrates the similarity of the vertical skeletons of human and bird.
