The Magic & Mystery of Birds: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human - Hardcover

From the life-long relationships of the albatross to the remarkable memory of the nutcracker and other avian mysteries, Noah Strycker illuminates the startlingly intimate coexistence of birds and humans."In almost any realm of bird behaviour - reproduction, populations, movements, daily rhythms, communication, navigation, intelligence, and so on - there are deep and meaningful parallels with our own."Noah Strycker has spent the last decade studying bird behaviour in some of the world's remotest places - from a penguin colony in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, the Australian outback, the Galpagos Islands - and has observed almost 2,500 species of birds. Noah has come to understand that birds are lively, unpredictable individuals loaded with personality and, if you look closely enough, birds have human counterparts.From the homing instinct of pigeons (and the mystery of the pigeon equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle in eastern England) and testing the turkey vulture's sense of smell with a deer carcass to the reason behind a penguin's fear of water, we ultimately learn about ourselves by studying birds.Drawing on cutting-edge scientific research, along with his personal experience, and colourful anecdotes The Magic and Mystery of Birds is a thoughtful and engaging look at how the life of birds connects with humanity.In an entertaining and perceptive account of the lives of birds, from watching penguins in Antarctica to testing turkey vultures' sense of smell, Noah Strycker illuminates the surprising world of birds and their secret life.In observing birds' intelligence and their emotional, even artistic, life scientists have unlocked fascinating insights into memory, game theory and the nature of intelligence itself. They explore what birds can teach us about humanity