The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human

The subtitle says it all (The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human). Strycker is a gifted writer and is able to reveal the wonder in what might seem to most of us to be mundane observations.The book is broken into sections (Body/Mind/Sprit) with several stand-alone chapters within each section. Absolutely fascinating facts about the lives, behaviors, and abilities of birds are compared to the same in humans.I was intrigued and inspired by this book, from start to finish.

Wonderful book! I am an avid birder. I got to know the birds chosen for each chapter in greater detail and that was great. But there is so much more information here that relates to birds but not directly about birds. It kept my interest and was stimulating and fun to read. Bravo!

I was looking for a good anecdotal addition to my growing interest in birds when I ran across the listing for this book and its quirky title. Had I stopped looking after reading the title I probably would have moved on, but it was the subtitle ("The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human,") that gave me reason to explore further. How could knowing about birds - even a selected list of birds - teach us anything about our humanity?Within its pages, Noah Strycker creates a compelling case for how living creatures are often like other living creatures; he shows us the mysteries that make us wonder; the baffling realizations that drive us to study birds at all. It transcends mere human psychology, exploring the abilities of homing pigeons, the precision of starling flocks, why white owls wander, the aggression of hummingbirds, penguin fear rhythm in parrots and true and undying love in albatrosses. It directly addresses the question: why are birds the way they are?It also defines the fascinating career of young Noah Strycker, a seasoned and widely experienced ornithologist (and associate editor of "Birding" magazine), whose avian curiosity drives the passion behind the quest to understand the brains of birds and how that relates to how we humans think, or, as Strycker writes, "This book may be about the bird world, but it's also about the human world."In its largest sense, Strycker analyses the physical, mental, and spiritual lives of birds from around the world through each of his more than a dozen selected breeds; more than that, it's how he sections his work.And for those looking for " an anecdotal addition" to their interest in birds, this might just be THE book you were looking for, and THE author to present it to you.

This is the BEST!!! I've read a lot of books about birds, and even though most have been full of information, studiously presented, competently written...well, sometimes they are a bit dry, tedious, meant to be picked up occasionally, but tough to sit down and read through. Dense? Maybe so. Strycker's book is absolutely wonderful, incredibly engaging from the first page to the last. Yes, every topic is VERY well researched, from how turkey vultures manage to locate dead yum yums (and it's not what you would think--a great sniffer, right?) to why snowy owls sometimes appear in the least likely locations--again, not what you would think...I tend to tear through a book that I am enjoying, but this experience was very different. I savored each chapter, set the book aside for a bit--and tried to stifle my appetite a bit to enjoy the next terrific piece. Strycker is an excellent writer, a creative thinker, a thorough researcher, a passionate lover of those things with feathers. --And his examination of birds goes beyond that to reflect on us, those things without feathers!

I bought this book for a niece. She loved it and will let me read it soon.

The Thing With Feathers: Noah StryckerWhether he can trace his genetic lineage back to a Biblical ancestor or because of his masterful acquisition of ornithological knowledge, Noah Strycker is superbly qualified to be the resident superintendent on the avian deck on a modern Noah’s Ark.Rogue and retro are the two words that describe Stycker and therefore, “The Thing With Feathers.” Rogue because he is going where few modern biologists are willing to go; retro because he went back to the pre-renaissance, three dimensional thinking that preceded the “great schism” between science and spirituality. Post-renaissance biologists threw the baby out with the baptismal water, eschewing all ideas about spirituality as irrelevant at best and dangerously counter-productive at worst.Strycker ignores ivory-towered elitists and practioners of scientism by boldly including anecdotes, stories and wisdom about the physical, mental and spiritual qualities of birds and humans.Most modern books include hyperbolic cover blurbs that often fail to reflect the book’s inner contents. However, the cover-claim that, “You have never read a book about birds like this before,” is patently true. There are many excellent books on birds currently available which TTWF will not replace; however, it will serve as an excellent complement to stand proudly on the bookshelves of bird-watchers and Nature lovers.Strycker’s style reveals hints of John Muir’s deep reverence for Nature; Henry Thoreau’s insistence of the importance of transcending experiences; Loren Eiseley’s claim that mystery still reigns supreme; And Annie Dillard’s sense of the spirituality of all living things.In the text, Strycker discusses:A cockatoo that has better dance moves than many biologists.Bower birds that have better artistic sense than many scientists.Birds that sing more beautifully than man.Albatrosses that mate for life and are more faithful than 50% of the married couples in the US.In a stroke of genius, Strycker reveals, that compared to universal knowledge, it is myopic biologists who have “bird-brains” and that birds are animals of extreme perfection that biologists are only beginning to understand.Lowell H. YoungAuthor: Biodesign Out For A Walk Follow us @:http://biodesignoutforawalk.com/www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk.

My dad loves to read and enjoyed this book

Me gustó como el autor aborda el tema, el enfoque, que no tiene citas a pie de página, están en el texto.Me gustó, también, que llegó rápido.

as above

An essential, recommended reading for bird lovers. Very well written. Very interesting details about different species of birds are provided in a manner that makes thisis book simply unputdownable.

This book delighted me. Stryker is an engaging enthusiast and I learned so much, both about birds and people. I've loaned the book to friends and they have felt the same; found the book informative, intriguing, and knowledgeable.

Mr Stryker gives episodic accounts of birds' reactions, actions, strategies in coping with the challenges they encounter on a daily basis or even in one-time events. These episodes put paid to the notion that birds are only pretty automatons that make (for the most part) pleasant sounds by demonstrating objectively that they definitely are more than that. What I found very useful was the introduction to the anatomy of a bird's brain whose degree of complexity in some cases places it on the same level as that of primates. This book is an excellent combination of science and of accounts of and experiences with birds, making the book readable for anyone who is interested in or curious about these beings - who, by the way, are the last decendants of a branch of predatory dinosaurs - thus leading on to a journey of discovery that will both delight and astonish..