I’m just beginning work on my 11th book, tentatively called An Atlas of Birds. Organized a bit like a geographic atlas, it will feature birds from each of nine biogeographical regions of the world. (although some say there are anywhere from six to twelve major biogeographical regions.) The goal is to choose 35 or so …
In 1938, the feature film Tarzan and the Green Goddess contained a call from the Laughing Kookaburra even though Tarzan’s adventures occurred in Africa where there are no kookaburras; but the bird came to represent jungle calls in various movies. The call is heard in The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Treasure of the Sierra …
Birds are smart and we ornithologists are continually elucidating the ways birds view their environment and respond to it. Recall my recent blog The Crow’s Story. The books and research papers coming out now reveal a whole new world of bird behavior and brain function. I read Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds a while …
I hesitate to get into politics in these blogs on birds, but the reason bird populations are in trouble are mainly due to various kinds of legislation – on land use, climate change, pesticide use, and so forth, which, of course, was passed by politicians who we elect. And having just had a major election …
An ancient civilization cooking on a mound of sand discovered glass around 3500 BC but it wasn’t until the 16th century that glass was shaped into the first telescope in an arrangement of glass lenses that magnified objects up to 30 times. Later, double telescopes were created – the first binoculars – but awkward and …
