Bird Sense
What It's Like to Be a Bird
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Narrated by:
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Robin Sachs
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By:
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Tim Birkhead
About this listen
What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise?
Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses - vision and hearing - but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a bird's sense of taste, or smell, or touch, or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away - how do they do it?
Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, Birkhead identifies ways we can escape from them to explore new horizons in bird behaviour.
There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by all their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation and a unique understanding of birds and their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science.
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The story of evolution as you’ve never heard it before. What’s the easiest way to tell species apart? Check their genitals. Researching private parts was long considered taboo, but scientists are now beginning to understand that the wild diversity of sex organs across species can tell us a lot about evolution. Menno Schilthuizen invites listeners to join him as he uncovers the ways the shapes and functions of genitalia have been molded by complex Darwinian struggles.
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A New Favorite
- By S. Pepper on 05-15-15
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The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
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Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
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The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
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Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
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How to Build a Dinosaur
- Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever
- By: Jack Horner, James Gorman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs - or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner, the scientist who advised Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jurassic Park and a pioneer in bringing paleontology into the 21st century, teams up with the editor of the New York Times's Science Times section to reveal exactly what's in store.
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Good book but misplaced title
- By Robert on 06-19-15
By: Jack Horner, and others
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The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
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Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
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A Naturalist at Large
- The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of the finest scientists and writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded marvelous, mind-altering insight and discoveries. In essays that span several decades, Bernd Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine, plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs), and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees.
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Listen and See the World Anew!
- By Thoughtful Learner on 06-03-18
By: Bernd Heinrich
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The Tyrannosaur Chronicles
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Adored by children and adults alike, tyrannosaurus is the most famous dinosaur in the world, one that pops up again and again in pop culture, often battling other beasts such as King Kong, triceratops, or velociraptors in Jurassic Park. But despite the hype, tyrannosaurus and the other tyrannosaurs are fascinating animals in their own right and are among the best-studied of all dinosaurs.
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An Engaging Biography of the King
- By Erik on 08-06-18
By: David Hone
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The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
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Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
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Written in Stone
- Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
- By: Brian Switek
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Spectacular fossil finds make today's headlines; new technology unlocks secrets of skeletons unearthed 100 years ago. Still, evolution is often poorly represented by the media and misunderstood by the public. A potent antidote to pseudoscience, Written in Stone is an engrossing history of evolutionary discovery for anyone who has marveled at the variety and richness of life.
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Very good but has some weaknesses
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-19
By: Brian Switek
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
What listeners say about Bird Sense
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angela
- 03-29-16
entertaining
not only did I learn quite a bit about birds, it was also laugh out loud funny. Good reader and good writer.
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1 person found this helpful
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- christopher
- 07-20-17
super interesting content super boring narrator.
I wish I had read the book instead. The narrator is almost sinfully boring and monotone.
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- Fay T. Ratta
- 06-03-19
Narrator is clueless
This was such a frustrating listen. It's like someone told the narrator "this is non-fiction...just use no inflection". He never varied even when you knew the author was making a reference that NEEDED inflection.
Paraphrasing here:
"I went to the Florida Everglades - home of rednecks and Deliverance - to look at birds."
Our narrator read it as if this were a fact contained in the sentence "birds have wings and can fly" instead of with wry humor. There are so many instances of this! I feel bad for the author and hope he never listened to this. Who vets these narrators? Does the author have any say in how they interpret his words?
The content was interesting and deepened my knowledge of birds. But it was a slog to get through.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Iben Krutt
- 10-28-16
Must read for bird lovers
Any additional comments?
Very informative, although somewhat dry. I enjoyed it and thought it was very on point and in depth at the time I read it. If you have little interest in birds and/or animal anatomy and behavior, this book isn’t for you. However, for the science-minded animal lover, it comes highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Joanne
- 08-14-17
Great info
As a person who lives with, admires and works with birds this was very informative. Truly appreciate getting answers to some of my questions, even if it was not species specific.
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- Jim
- 09-30-17
Wet Your Beak a Little
This book is for bird watchers and nature buffs, like me. We read/listen not just for entertainment but to also mine bits of information to impress our friends and make them jealous. Here are bits pulled from Mr. Birkhead’s book: Pigeons navigate by detecting the magnetic pole through molecules of magnetite imbedded in their right eye. The brain areas of neo-tropical songbirds concerned with sound swell during nesting season, then shrink the rest of the year to save energy. Tiny hummingbirds have two areas of great visual acuity at the back of their retina, the same as hawks. Cave-dwelling oilbirds echolocate like bats, but not as well. Kiwis can hardly see but probe with a bill so sensitive it not only smells earthworms but senses their body mass under the dirt. Owl ears are fine tuned to pick up the higher resonances made by rodents. The inside of ducks’ bills are lined with nerves that separate food from grit in a split second as the birds dabble. And so on, and so on. The author is a British ornithologist who specializes in seabirds, but gives information about a range of different types. He writes well and the narration is good. Use the book to increase your personal bird knowledge.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Cbelle
- 08-26-14
A comprehensive answer
Any additional comments?
If you have ever wondered what it's like to be a bird this book is a must. Details like why a falcon's eyesight is so good (because the eyeball has two foviae as opposed to a human's one). And did you know that relative to body size, the size of bird's eyes are almost twice as large as those of most mammals? Even with a distaste for biology this book easily held my attention...sound localisation, taste, smell, magnetic sense, emotions, it's all there. And all very well done.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tyler C
- 07-24-14
The science of the science of bird senses
This book not only tells you what the birds experience, but how we know what they experience. There are many interesting facts both about birds and the pioneers that discovered those facts and what experiments uncovered them. It's organized by sense, which I thought was helpful in visualizing bird life. If you like books that make the world around you more interesting, this is the book for you.
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6 people found this helpful
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- CB
- 07-27-14
Fascinating facts about birds
If you like learning cool facts about animal behavior, you'll love this book. Full of surprising information on how various species of bird perceive the world, and how that drives their behavior. Good narrator, kept my interest.
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3 people found this helpful
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- victoria
- 07-18-15
How science is so much FUN
I actually selected this book because I love Robin Sachs, and he did not disappoint here.
I am not an avid birder but I pay attention to what I see; like to recognize species, and am fascinated to understand the behavior of birds and other animals in the wild. But Birkhead takes the reader behind the scenes for a clear and intriguing look at how we know what we know and the ingenuity of the people who figured things out. The correspondence -- over the course of centuries -- among people studying birds gives a wonderful personal sense of the individuals and their quests.
Yes, this is definitely about the scientific process, but it's described clearly and eloquently. In the process, we get to see and understand the dazzling variety of birds' evolutionary solutions to living in the extremes of settings and environments.
I liked the listen so much I've ordered a hard copy to return to and to share with like-minded friends.
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1 person found this helpful