
Flight Paths
How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration
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Narrated by:
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Allyson Ryan
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By:
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Rebecca Heisman
About this listen
The captivating, little-known true story of a group of scientists and the methods and technology they developed to uncover the secrets of avian migration.
For the past century, scientists and naturalists have been steadily unravelling the secrets of bird migration. How and why birds navigate the skies, traveling from continent to continent—flying thousands of miles across the earth each fall and spring—has continually fascinated the human imagination, but only recently have we been able to fully understand these amazing journeys. Although we know much more than ever before, even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher may not know how we got here, the ways that the full breadth of scientific disciplines have come together to reveal these annual avian travels.
Flight Paths is the never-before-told story of how a group of migration-obsessed scientists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries engaged nearly every branch of science to understand bird migration—from where and when they take off to their flight paths and behaviors, their destinations and the challenges they encounter getting there. Uniting curious minds from across generations, continents, and disciplines, bird enthusiast and science writer Rebecca Heisman traces the development of each technique used for tracking migratory birds, from the first attempts to mark individual birds to the cutting-edge technology that lets ornithologists trace where a bird has been, based on unique DNA markers. Along the way, she touches on the biggest technological breakthroughs of modern science and reveals the almost-forgotten stories of the scientists who harnessed these inventions in service of furthering our understanding of nature (and their personal obsession with birds).
The compelling and fascinating story of how scientists solved the great mystery of bird migration, Flight Paths is an unprecedented look into exciting, behind-the-scenes moments of groundbreaking discovery. Heisman demonstrates that the real power of science happens when people work together, focusing their minds and knowledge on a common goal. While the world looks to tackle massive challenges involving conservation and climate, the story of migration research offers a beacon of hope that we can find solutions to difficult and complex problems.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Rebecca Heisman (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Fantastic book for any nature enthusiast
- By FernT on 05-23-21
By: Scott Weidensaul
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The (Big) Year That Flew By
- Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record
- By: Arjan Dwarshuis, Mark Obmascik - foreword
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the “Big Year”—the legendary record for birdwatching—he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder. Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts—in just a single year.
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Disappointing
- By nick on 10-14-23
By: Arjan Dwarshuis, and others
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Alfie and Me
- What Owls Know, What Humans Believe
- By: Carl Safina
- Narrated by: Carl Safina
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected that, like other wild orphans they'd rescued, she'd be a temporary presence. But Alfie's feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a part of the family, joining a menagerie of dogs and chickens and making a home for herself in the backyard.
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Resilience of owls
- By Management on 05-03-24
By: Carl Safina
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Birds by the Shore
- Observing the Natural Life of the Atlantic Coast
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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For three years, Jennifer Ackerman lived in the small coastal town of Lewes, Delaware, in the sort of blue-water, white-sand landscape that draws summer crowds up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Birds by the Shore is a book about discovering the natural life at the ocean's edge: the habits of shorebirds and seabirds, the movement of sand and water, the wealth of creatures that survive amid storm and surf. Against this landscape's rhythms, Ackerman revisits her own history - her mother's death, her father's illness, and her hopes to have children of her own.
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Learned a lot
- By Amazon Customer on 07-01-19
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The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals.
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Fantastic Book
- By Peter Jensen on 09-08-22
By: Steve Brusatte
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Most Delicious Poison
- The Story of Nature's Toxins―from Spices to Vices
- By: Noah Whiteman
- Narrated by: Noah Whiteman
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mold spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic-mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), recover from surgery (opioids), cure infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them?
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Off topic
- By Stewart on 12-26-23
By: Noah Whiteman
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Of Time and Turtles
- Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When acclaimed naturalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson arrive at Turtle Rescue League, they are greeted by hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars and highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles—with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal—are given a second chance at life. The League’s founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle.
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love turtles but...
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-24
By: Sy Montgomery
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Birding Without Borders
- An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Luke Welland
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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With an itinerary covering 41 countries, spanning all seven continents, and armed with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he sets out on the greatest adventure in the birding world. Along the way he meets a colorful cast of fellow birders—and discovers a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, and conservation triumphs.
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Birding and travel. Win win.
- By Melinda Wheeler on 11-29-23
By: Noah Strycker
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A Wing and a Prayer
- The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds
- By: Anders Gyllenhaal, Beverly Gyllenhaal
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Stephen Graybill
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past year, veteran journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal traveled more than 25,000 miles across the Americas, chronicling costly experiments, contentious politics, and new technologies to save our beloved birds from the brink of extinction. Through this compelling drama, A Wing and a Prayer offers hope and an urgent call to action: Birds are dying at an unprecedented pace. But there are encouraging breakthroughs across the hemisphere and still time to change course, if we act quickly.
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Memoir disguised as nature
- By adel on 12-26-23
By: Anders Gyllenhaal, and others
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The Genius of Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores their newly discovered brilliance and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research, Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are shifting our view of what it means to be intelligent.
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Well-researched and engaging
- By Rubin on 05-20-25
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The Bird Way
- A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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"There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries - what they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own.
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Good Work but it doesn’t scale
- By Stanley Lippman on 07-02-20
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Slow Birding
- The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard
- By: Joan E. Strassmann
- Narrated by: Joan E. Strassmann
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Many birders travel far and wide to popular birding destinations to catch sight of rare or “exotic” birds. In Slow Birding, evolutionary biologist Joan E. Strassmann introduces listeners to the joys of birding right where they are.
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Beware: This Book Is Not (Really) About Birding
- By S. Gunn on 08-02-24
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Birds and Us
- A 12,000-Year History from Cave Art to Conservation
- By: Tim Birkhead
- Narrated by: Tim Birkhead
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the dawn of human history, birds have stirred our imagination, inspiring and challenging our ideas about science, faith, art, and philosophy. We have worshipped birds as gods, hunted them for sustenance, adorned ourselves with their feathers, studied their wings to engineer flight, and, more recently, attempted to protect them. In Birds and Us, award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on a dazzling epic journey through our mutual history with birds.
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Why birds ate important
- By Amazon Customer on 06-22-24
By: Tim Birkhead
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What an Owl Knows
- The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior.
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The dedication and fierce commitment of the author
- By Michael G. T. Thompson on 12-17-24
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The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
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Engaging and optimistic
- By Steve on 12-18-24
Fascinating Look at the Science Behind Migration
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Great scientific overview
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Where did my summer tanager go?
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Loved every minute of it
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Enjoyable read
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BIRDS!
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Very Good
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Captivating story
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I should have read the description more carefully
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Poor narration, seemed AI generated. Unlistenable at times
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