The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present

by Steve Brusatte

The Story of Birds has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Nature, Birds, Animals, Palaeontology

448 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

Author writes under the penname Stephen Brusatte as well.

Stephen Louis Brusatte (born April 24, 1984) is an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, who specializes in the anatomy and evolution of dinosaurs. He was educated at the University of Chicago for his BS degree, at the University of Bristol for his MSc on a Marshall Scholarship, and finally at the Columbia University for MPhil and PhD. He is currently a Reader in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh. In addition to his scientific papers and technical monographs, his popular book Dinosaurs (2008) and the textbook Dinosaur Paleobiology (2012) earned him accolades, and he became the resident palaeontologist and scientific consultant for the BBC Earth and 20th Century Fox's 2013 film Walking With Dinosaurs, which is followed by his popular book Walking with Dinosaurs Encyclopedia. His most recent book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (2018), written for the adult lay person, won widespread acclaim, and was a New York Times bestseller.

Reviews

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really hope he tackles Ancient Reptiles in one of his next books :)

Will re-visit via audiobook one day to properly learn how to pronounce all the names of the different types mentioned in the book, pretty sure I got most of em wrong haha but had fun trying to sound out the more complicated ones.

Dinosaurs are just so.. fascinating ya know?

Glad I took my time with this one and sad I'm done with it.


Highly recommend all his books 📚 👌.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

With his April 2026 The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present author and palaeontologist Steve Brusatte academically soundly and thoroughly yet also readably points out that while many of us have generally been told both at school and later also at college or at university that there are no more dinosaurs, that ALL dinosaurs became extinct when that meteor slammed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico 66 million years ago, this is indeed and in fact patently, is thus completely untrue.

For Brusatte successfully (well, for me at least) shows and tells in The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present that one group of dinosaurs did in fact survive the K-T Boundary mass extinction event, as birds are actually to be considered dinosaurs (and not just closely related), that even today, birds are, that they should be seen as being the latter and how among the diverse dinosaur groups of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous were small, agile theropods, were feathered hunters which ran on two legs and possessed sharp senses, lightweight bones and increasingly birdlike features, that over millions of years, some of these dinosaurs also evolved feathers not merely for warmth or display, but eventually also for gliding and for flight, finally becoming class aves (birds), but that according to Steve Brusatte in The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present class aves is, birds are thus and basically the one group of dinosaurs that managed to survive the mass global extinction at the end of the Cretaceous to evolve and also to thrive.

And yes, in The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present, the fossil record (naturally so for a palaeontologist) serves as Brusatte’s both textual and also as his visual guide, with him pointing out discoveries from places such as Liaoning, China, where spectacular fossils of feathered dinosaurs have been unearthed, preserving impressions of plumage in stone (how dinosaurs themselves, how creatures once imagined as being reptilian, scaly and sluggish now tend to be considered as something vibrant, feathered, dynamic and also not inherently cold but often indeed warm blooded) and that transitional species such as for example Archaeopteryx reveal an evolutionary mixture (with teeth and claws like a dinosaur but feathers and wings like a bird).

So what emerges from Brusatte’s narrative in The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present is a profound as well as a totally delightful and also absolutely believable shift in perspective (and one that I for one am also more than ready and willing to wholly, absolutely believe) where birds are for Steve Brusatte (and actually not just for him either and in fact for many of today's top palaeontologists) not anymore simply related to and the descendants of dinosaurs in the same manner that we humans are descended from ancient mammals, but instead that birds both now and then are still and today bona fide, are actual dinosaurs, that they are the modern and surviving dinosaur branch that survived while and when all the other great dinosaur lineages perished in and because of the catastrophe (the meteor strike and its aftermath) which ended the Cretaceous (and that therefore all dinosaurs are according to The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present not extinct and indeed never have been extinct, that ONLY the non-avian dinosaurs perished en masse and completely while some if not even many of the avian dinosaurs survived, endured, adapted and eventually diversified into the many thousands of bird species we know of and encounter today).

Now some more critical reviews of The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present seem to find the prose a trifle too colourful, overly popularised (in other words not academic enough) and argue that Brusatte occasionally also anthropomorphises extinct animals. But no, no, no, for me, how Steve Brusatte with The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present shows and tells about the evolution and the history of birds (from the Jurassic until today) readably and without too much scientific jargon, this indeed and definitely makes The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present not only interesting and enlightening, it also makes The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present suitable for readers without an advanced, university level STEM background (that indeed, even teenaged readers with an interest in biology, palaeontology, evolution, dinosaurs, birds etc. should in my humble opinion be able to find The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present enjoyable and satisfying and especially so if they read and textually explore The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present in short and thus also manageable, easy to verbally digest chunks).

And for me, the only reason why my rating for The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present is four and not five stars is that I do wish Brusatte's sources could be a bit more user friendly, since for me, an itemised list of book titles would definitely be considerably more supplemental research friendly (as having the book titles Steven Brusatte features and profiles in his notes for The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present kind of in my humble opinion be hidden there or at least appear as a bit hard to easily find has definitely been more than a trifle textually frustrating and that the notes for The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present and how they appear and are presented are as such also the only part of Brusatte's text I have not totally and utterly enjoyed).

[David Auth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m gonna be thinking about this book for the rest of my life. Superb.

[Geevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having listened to Prof Brusatte's The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: The Untold Story of a Lost World during Covid and really enjoyed his ability to explain and hold my attention, I was delighted to find this in my local library.

With his easy way of writing and his very capable way of explaining scientific terms and science, Brusatte tells the story of birds from the time of dinosaurs to today. The majority of the book covers those birds who existed in the various ages the world has experienced, and in many cases became extinct.

Using his expertise as a palaeontologist, and those of colleagues and other subject matter experts, he takes the reader on a journey of the birds' discoveries and how from the fossils how they did/or likely lived and in what areas of the earth and in what climates. Covering bone structure, wing spans, flight methods and insight into eating or hunting, and how their bird bodies evolved was hugely interesting and also assisted by many photos and diagrams.
This is expanded with information on the discovery of those bird fossils and in some cases by whom and how science was moved forward by them. The sheer variety and diversity of "dinosaur" birds both as extinct types and indeed surviving ones (there are some 10k types of bird exist today) is astonishing.

The final chapters see more modern birds take the stage, and how they have themselves evolved or adapted from their antecedents. He also discusses the dangers to birds today, and I was surprised that whilst many species are under threat the worst period for birds and human led extinction was in the 17th and 18th centuries as trade and people expanded across the globe.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable, informative and eye-opening book that would suit any general reader with a interest in birds and dinosaurs.

My copy was the Picador (Harper Collins) hardback edition published in 2026.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many quotable and fascinating bits! Includes, at the beginning (not in an appendix) a helpful Timeline of Birds and also a Bird Family Tree. Also includes actual notes on the sources and an index, both much-appreciated. Good photos, conceptual drawings, and art.

I sure do appreciate that Brusatte often says 'as far as we know (or understand) so far' and words to that effect. "These are simply two species, the only ones currently known from decent skeletons. A single new discovery could muddy the story."

In this book, and in their work, the author & his colleagues "want to understand entire ecosystems, to make connections between the world of the past and the world of ours. It is these connections that matter." Near the end he specifically explains what his fairly large team is currently working on. "Stay tuned" he says.

Wishbones, hollow bones, upright bipedal posture, wings, other features "developed for other reasons, millions of years before any dinosaur took to the skies, and much later were repurposed to function as parts in a flying machine. The Wright brothers, after all, did not invent the wheel or the propeller. But they put them together and got them working in a new way - as an airplane."

" ... a form of evolution called correlated progression, in which changes in one feature or behavior influences another."

"Why were only some birds able to survive when all the other dinosaurs died?" They compared the survivors too what we know of those who perished. They looked at examples of success and of failure, in other words.

"There are around 6500 species of mammals today, but depending on which classification scheme you follow, between 10,000 and 20,000 species of birds.... our world is still a dinosaur planet."

"Convergent evolution is... also common among raptorial birds that eat meat. Hawks and eagles make up their own neo avian subgroup, but it does not include the falcons, which are actually more closely related to parrots and songbirds.

"T. Rex made its eggs in the same way as a chicken."

Archaeopteryx is (a bit arbitrarily) a "conceptual anchor point for discussing bird origins."

The gizzard of a bird is further back down then I thought. But they "can move partially digested food back and forth between the mouth, crop, esophagus, stomach, gizzard, and intestines. This squeezes extra nutrition out of the food."

Cattle egrets "themselves, on their own, immigrated to the New World because there was a new opportunity to chase, and their powerful wings, warm-blooded stamina, and ability to migrate gave them the means to chase it."

I love that we learn geology, climate, animal behavior, etc., not just paleontology. Consider the 8th continent, Zealandia. First I've heard of it! Not everyone is convinced, I'm sure... but after reading Brusatte's explanation, I certainly am!

"In essence, flightless birds have downsized their vehicle from a gas-guzzling, high-maintenance sports car to a reliable, fuel-efficient sedan."

Elephant birds did not become extinct until about 1000 years ago. Modern humans knew them, and ate their eggs. The great auk was eaten to extinction less than 200 years ago.

"It was penguins that opportunistically transformed their bodies and behaviors to claim the crown at the top of the ocean food chain. It wasn't a short reign either. Huge penguins would continue to patrol the Southern Ocean [from their development in the aftermath of the K–T (or K-Pg) extinction] until about 25 million years ago, when they were superseded by whales and seals."

Darwin's finches should actually be known as [John] Gould's tanagers. Read the book to find out why. It's very interesting.

"Getting rid of wind turbines might save a tiny percentage of birds - less than 1 tenth of 1% of those needlessly killed each year - but many more will survive if we transition to cleaner energy sources that don't warm and pollute the Earth so extensively." Also "keep your house cats inside! ... avoid weed killers and other pesticides in our gardens that harm birds...."

I've given you just a sample of the wonderfulness here. Please read the book yourself. I will continue to read Brusatte; his style is so lucid and engaging.

He's amazing: he does, teaches, reads, and writes about science. I have figured out that the best science books are by the multi-talented. He writes well, because he has to make things clear & interesting to his students. His science is high-quality, because he is a scientist. I'll stop heedlessly wasting my time on science books written by journalists & philosophers.

[Martin Riexinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book on the "dinosaurs turned bats" contains the classical Brusatte mix of a solid information on the subject itself (research history included) and rather subjective passages reflecting the individual fascination of the scientists for their research objects.

In some instances Brusatte draws sketches of the life of certain species in their environment reminding of TV series like Walking with Dinosaurs. His real focus is, however, to show how our knowledge of birds improved and increased, both when it comes to their development as reflected in the fossil record and DNA as well as the astonishing cognitive and physical abilities of contemporary species.

In the first section Brusatte how the idea that birds are derived from dinosaurs was actually common among the founding fathers of the theory of evolution, fell into oblivion, not least because of the often tiny creatures to the "monsters" of the Mesozoic appeared counterintuitive. It gained traction again in the course of the "dinosaur renaissance" when it became clear that dinosaurs had a much higher metabolic rate than earlier assumed. Brusatte presents the fossil record, in particular the impressive Chinese findings, that have since the 1990s helped to bolster this thesis. Brusatte highlights the development of those characteristics that are essential for modern birds, not flight and wings, but feathers, the beak and rapid maturation (one year even among larger species). I suppose I am not the only reader who ecpected some discussion of the competition between birds and pterosaus. Brusatte acknowledges the importance of this issue, but according to him that paleontologists have not found enough evidence to formulate meaningful hypotheses and he resists the temptation to speculate on the topic.

When it comes to the KP extension event, Brusatte emphasizes that the large majority of birds disappeared as well. He favors the theory that only a few, mostly semiaquatic species survived. Thereafter birds diversified rapidly and most of the present clades were already present in the Miocene. Much attention is devoted to the London Clays as a trove of fossils documenting the developments of birds in the early Neozoic
It is a bit of an irony that Brusatte highlights how the focus on giants among dinosaurs obstructed the understanding of the evolution of birds, while he himself pays much attention to giants, mostly the flightless ones but also the largest birds that ever flew. As opposed to that evolution of passerines appears rather on the margins. That moas, terror birds and giant penguins are awe-inspiring is most probaly a reason for his choice, but of course the fossil record is much better and the loss of the ability to fly is quite interesting from a theoretical point of view.
In the final section Brusatte reports on the research on the astonishibg cognitive abilities of some modern genera of birds, in particular corvids and parrots. Already in an earlier chapter he has informed his readers on Tilly Edinger's (1897-1967) research on the development of the bird brain. According to him the abilities of birds were long underestimated because usually the brain/body size ration of birds is lower than that of mammals. Although not unimportant, this is not the single decisive factor, and it obscured for a long time that the neuron density in bird brains is much higher than in mammal ones. Brusatte thinks that until the evolution of apes, the cognitively most advanced animals were to be found among birds.*
In the end Brusatte discusses the impact of humans on bird evolution, extinction on the one hand, in particular following the Austronesian expansion into Oceania and Madagascar and the Western expansion,** the numerical explosion of some species due to domestication on the other (there are three chicken for every human).

One strong and also the one weak point of the book is the human interest aspect. Brusatte does not only tell us what certain researchers have found out, he also provides a lot of information on the biography and personality of some of them.
In some instances this is very interesting, especially in the case of Tilly Edinger's flight from Third Reich Frankfurt via London to Harvard 1939-40. This applies as well as well to the Harlem background Erich Jarvis whose way to to his leading position in the project to map the genome of all birds lead though art school, or Michael Daniels, the locksmith and amateur fossil finder withouth whose discoveries in the London Clays we would have significantly less knowledge of bird evolution in the Paleogene. That some other researchers are rappers in their sparetime and the like is, however, hardly relevant from my point of view. And Brusatte's son may be a cute guy, but Brusatte's paternal paternal pride goes perhaps a bit over the top.
But this is does not diminish the value of the book as an outstanding example for making scientific insights accessible to the public. So my question is which topic will Brusatte address after nonavian dinosaurs, mammals and birds. Pterosaurs? Suchians? Marine reptiles? Whatever the topic may be I am looking forward to his next book.

* Well, some. Just as I had read the chapter a robin flew into my mother's house through the open verada door, and it tried every closed window to get out but not the door through which it had come in, until I finally manage to catch it and set it free.
** In this context he demonstrates that the dodo (according to my knowledge together with the aurochs) was decisive for Western scientific thought as its demise made obvious that species can become extinct.

[BizNizil76 · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★ A Great Read for Anyone Who Loves Dinosaurs, Evolution, and Birds

As someone who has loved dinosaurs and evolutionary science since I was a kid, this book was exactly the kind of read I hoped it would be. It does a really good job of showing just how fascinating birds are once you stop seeing them as “just birds” and start seeing them as living dinosaurs.

What I appreciated most was how practical and readable it was. The explanations of feather evolution, theropod dinosaurs, survival after the extinction event, and how birds adapted into so many forms over millions of years were genuinely interesting without being mentally exhausting.

If you enjoy paleontology, evolution, natural history, or just learning how the world got to be the way it is, this is worth picking up. It feels written by someone who genuinely cares about the subject and wants readers to share in that fascination. Definitely one of the better books I’ve read on the topic. (And I've read a few)

[Liam Wilkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slowly morphing into a birdwatcher

[Susan in NC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy this American paleontologist’s books; they are accessible, informative, very well-researched, and entertaining. He’s a wonderful communicator and writer, and his enthusiasm for his subject matter is contagious. I also appreciate his positive attitude toward his colleagues and fellow scientists – he often calls them out my name and explains why he appreciates collaborations or work they have done. In this self-centered, braggadocios age, that seems like a very worthwhile professional trait, and one I appreciate.

I must admit, I skimmed large chunks when the author went down the rabbit hole of genealogy or taxonomy or anatomy, which just went over my head. But I love his ability to help me visualize the asteroid strike that hit Earth 66 million years ago, and what life on earth would’ve been like in the aftermath. He paints such a vivid picture of the birds and mammals that survived, and the adaptations they made. I feel like I’m there, terrifying as that would have been to live among elephant birds, terror birds and demon ducks! It continues to fascinate me and draw me back to anything he writes.

As to accessibility for the enthusiastic non-scientist readers, here’s an example: in chapter 5 he’s explaining about birds surviving the asteroid that hit earth 66 million years ago that wiped out the largest dinosaurs. He writes:

“To summarize, if you were to ask me why a few birds were able to evade the asteroid, I would explain it as several circumstances, compounded together. The first rule of end-Cretaceous survival was a matter of size. If you were bigger than a midsize dog and lived on land, and not in the shallow water, your species was a goner, end of story. Then, if you were on the right side of this cut off, it became a maniacal game of poker. There was no time to adapt to the normal processes of natural selection, of genes shaping your success over the generations. Instead: what hand of cards did you happen to hold? If you were slow growing, unable to burrow or shelter, and had a specialized diet, then game over. If you grew fast, could hide, and could eat seeds or detritus, that’s a royal flush. But like any gambler at the poker table, even if you had a strong hand, you still needed luck. You still had to deal with the other players – the other species struggling to stagger on – and whatever twists of chance were thrown your way. Even the hardiest bird might have randomly been blown astray by a wind gust or caught in a downpour of acid rain; even an entire species – so prepared to confront the disaster with their seed, crunching beaks, and rapid growth rates – could’ve gone up in flames if a wildfire just so happened to incinerate their habitat. No matter how they did it, once some crown group birds made it through the nuclear winter and greeted the returning sun, they would have looked out at an empty world. T-Rex and triceratops were gone. Most niches in the food webs were vacant. Opportunities abounded. And these birds took advantage – they diversified with gusto, evolving into many new species, reconquering the trees, expanding into new environments, and in some cases moving into the niches of their departed, dinosaur brethren. But just sometimes, because most of those dinosaur niches were filled by other groups of survivors. Mammals. We humans had furry ancestors that also stared down the asteroid. Our tiny, mouse-sized forebears persisted, by virtue of their small size, fast growth, and ability to dig burrows and eat a variety of foods.”

[sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the sort of book that forever changes the way you look into your backyard or out the window of your apartment where that little sparrow or fat pigeon is resting. i have read Brusatte's other two books, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of Mammals, and by now i'm familiar with the profound way he captures the history of these different lives on our planet. this book is so moving, so remarkable. it's that sort of feeling where you know each and every single one of the species mentioned in this book could have its own 350-page story chronicling its existence, and it sends you into a little bit of a spiral over how magnificent and huge the history of these animals is—and how fast we are destroying them. (keep your cats inside, please!!)

i understand that a book like this is made to be accessible to a broader, maybe not-so-educated-on-the-subject-of-birds audience, but Brusatte writes in such a way that the colloquialisms and so-called "dumbing-down" of concepts never undermine the delivery of the hard science that supports each of these incredible discoveries. i love how clear it is that the study of birds is an interdisciplinary and interpersonal thing and that it takes a village of brilliant scientists to come to these conclusions. and Brusatte never skimps out on giving his colleagues their flowers!! there are so many scientists i now admire because he admires them. what a wonderful book; i cannot wait for whatever he decides to write next because i will surely be there on release day!! 🐧

birds are dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!

[Dax · Rating 4 out of 5]

The always reliable Steve Brusatte. You can count on him to write something informative and engaging. Brusatte can get pretty detailed on paleontological aspects but the writing is never dry. If you have even the slightest interest in paleontology, I recommend Brusatte's books on dinosaurs and mammals as well. This one is a solid four stars.

[Librariann · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing that is important to note: Birds are dinosaurs.

A second thing that is important to note: birds are Dinosaurs.

With its recent science and discoveries, this title made me take a second look at my library's juvenile nonfiction section to ensure that current dinosaur depictions are up to date. So many interesting findings! So much evolutionary biology! So many Greek and Latin roots! If you want a better understanding of bird lineage tailored to non-academic readers, read this. If you want to be able to smash the general public and name at least 10 dinosaur species, this book is absolutely the refresher you need. I'd love to see a young reader's adaptation, but would recommend this to select tweens and teens with strong reading stamina and an interest in science nonfiction.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always thought that birds originate from dinosaurs. From this quite informative book I learnt that they are dinosaurs. Next time I come across a penguin I will observe a living dinosaur, that literally flies underwater. All birds belong to a group of dinosaurs called theropods.

Theropods were an extraordinarily diverse group of dinosaurs. They ranged from animals the size of a sparrow to giants over 12 metres long. Because birds evolved from small theropods, there is no single "typical" theropod, but they shared a number of characteristic features. Unlike mammals, theropods walked on their toes. Their heels never touched the ground, much like modern birds.

The author investigates the central mystery of why birds — and only birds among all the dinosaurs — survived the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago, while their non-avian relatives and the pterosaurs perished. He examines what particular traits of the surviving bird lineages — small body size, dietary flexibility, ground-nesting habits — may have allowed them to endure the darkness, cold, and collapse of food chains that followed the impact.

After the extinction, the handful of surviving bird lineages found themselves in a world emptied of competitors. These survivors rapidly proliferated in a barren landscape, filling the ecological niches vacated by the extinct dinosaurs.

[Cheesecat777 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve Brusatte has never failed to disappoint me, and that includes this book. I definitely recommend this as a companion piece to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs for sure!

[midori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Locking this in as a favourite book of 2026. Okay okay, yes I am biased because I LOVE birds, but this was so engaging, interesting, and often whimsical. Evolution is friggin cool.

[Hal Brodsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a birders this book provided me with more information than I'll ever need.
And yet.....
The main crux of the book is that birds are dinosaurs. Period. I already knew that, but and the methodically explains why this is the case and describes some evolutionary proof. This requires 2 chapters.
The rest of the book is largely fill: descriptions of some extinct birds and of some "amazing" modern birds( the Raven, the pigeon, and the Chicken. Really?). Anecdotes and shout outs to other scientists and former students, current environmental issues, examples of evolution.
What was most maddening about this book is it is filled with extremely low quality photographs and irrelevant drawings (mostly by former students). Brusatte will describe an evolutionary important bone or organ (example the syrinx) and provide a drawing with that part unlabeled. Weird.

[Emma K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve Brusatte has done it again. I will read anything he writes as he is able to beautifully illustrate the latest discoveries in paleontology with prose so vivid that I'm completely immersed.The prose in the book is wonderfully balanced with explanations on the science, weaving through the author's field experience and history of various discoveries. More than once during this read did I find myself watching the birds through the window into my backyard, getting emotional thinking about how the dinosaurs I loved so much as a child were here all along in another form.

[Skylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

HELL 👏 YEAH 👏
this book taught me SO MUCH and I was GRIPPED the entire time!!! I love birds!!!! Read this book!!!

[Sahaj Patel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning book. The writing is so captivating and feels akin to reading a drama. The evolution of birds is such a marvel, and is an incredible window into the lives of (other, more famous) dinosaurs, the fifth extinction, and the animal kingdom. As a novice birder, I am already so distracted by birds in the wild, but now after reading this book, I feel like I could stare at birds for an even longer time and never run out of things to appreciate about them.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I thought The Story of Birds was well-formatted, as it starts with more ancient birds and the foundations of theories surrounding bird-dinosaur evolution before transitioning into describing the lives of more modern extinct birds and birds that exist today. As someone who does not know much about dinosaurs and their timeline on Earth, I thought Brusatte did an excellent job of giving great context as the book progressed. I was not inundated with information, but I felt confident in my understanding.

I was happy to listen to the audiobook by HarperAudio. I thought the narration was expressive and easy to follow. I've heard Steve Brusatte on radio interviews before, and it really struck me how similar his delivery is to the narrator of this book, Patrick Lawlor.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperAudio!

[Lekeisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Will Read Any Book Steve Brusatte Writes

He has a way of keeping you engaged, always with the occasional joke thrown in. I always find myself laughing my way through chapters. I loved learning about all of the different bird species and their evolution. And while some of the scientific names tripped me up, I settled on the nicknames. Demon ducks, elephant birds..... and how the Dodo 🦤 got its name. It's no wonder that this book of birds and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs are two of my favorites. I enjoyed the mammals as well, but not as much as the dinos and their descendants. I highly recommend this one. Especially to bird lovers.

[L. Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and Rise and Reign of the Mammals several times over the years because I just love them that much and find them so easily accessible and engaging, and the author’s latest book will certainly be one I intend to re-read in the future.

The Story of Birds is understandably broad in scope, tracing the history of the avian family all the way from their origins (or what we know of their origins so far), 150 million years ago with the feathered masterpiece Archaeopteryx, up until the present day, where birds are now facing their biggest threat (making us, shamefully, worse than the dinosaur-killing asteroid).

Honestly, Brusatte just has this magic knack for engaging you in a subject that, at first glance, might seem impenetrable and complex. I’m no scientist, and only really read about dinosaurs and prehistory and biology for fun, but I find his books so incredibly easy to fall into. He explains things in ways that are neither patronising nor overly academic, ensuring the average reader grasps things like how we can count the number of neurons in an animal’s brain, how we’re able to tell what colour an extinct bird’s feathers were, and what significance bone structure has on bird classification.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the broad strokes used to chart this 250 million year journey. By focusing on smaller examples within each chapter, Brusatte is able to provide a bigger picture by building up a layer of smaller ones. For example, chapter 4 covers the time period immediately before the End Cretaceous mass extinction of 66 million years ago, when birds had already diversified from dinosaurs. He uses Vegavis (a duck-like bird that lived in Cretaceous Antarctica just before the asteroid) as an example of an animal suited to its environment, which then allowed him to explore how Cretaceous Antarctica wasn’t the blasted snowscape we know it as today, because the climate was markedly different back then. He then explored how the skull shape and the formation of the palette resulted in birds losing their teeth. From this, we then learn that birds do retain this tooth-growing gene, but to activate it in bird embryos is fatal.

And every chapter is like this, using one example as a launchpad for various other intricate, interesting pitstops on the incredibly colourful journey of birds from their humble origins to their insane diversity of today.

I probably don’t apprecaite birds as much as I do dinosaurs or prehistoric mammals, but this book has thoroughly convinced me that I should start taking more of an interest.

Even if you have only a passing interest in the topic of birds, I seriously cannot recommend this one enough.

[Florian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is always such a pleasure to read something from Brusatte.
I have been in love with his books for a long time, and learning that he was about to drop a book about birds was very exciting to me, since I also love those avian hyperactive goobers.

Focusing less on the birds that are alive right now, The Story of Birds chronciles how they evolved from their dinosaur ancestors to what we see in the world today, in the meantime talking about topics such as when, why, and how feathers and flight evolved, or when, why and how some birds stopped flying. All the while, we get some examples of amazing bird creatures, but not too many so as to overwhelm the casual reader with namedropping (though I do think that Brusatte could've done with about 50 pages more, just to flesh out some background information).

I also have a few issues with his prose, as the book sometimes reads almost too casually. And, and this is the more important part, I did not enjoy that the book is a little speciecist when it comes to animals. While Brusatte is willing to accept how intelligent non-human animals are, he seems to be fine with zoos, and even eating them. He does not outright endorse the grisly practices of zoos and factory farming, but he uses analogies of chicken breast to illustrate which muscles help birds fly for instance (yes, he does later point out that humans bread them to be disablingly large in modern chickens), which just gave me an ick. I contrasted this with his portrayal of the extermination of the dodo, which he clearly does not endorse, and found it sadly lacking.

Overall, though, the book is highly informative as are the other two books of in the 'series', and I wonder where he will go next, or if there is even room for a next installment. And it made me appreciate a thing that I already loved even more.

[Willy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Story of Birds by Steve Brusatte is an excellent look into one of the great families of animals; the birds. Brusatte charts their history from the Jurassic all the way to the present, detailing riveting species whilst also explaining how they came to be how they are.

I was a bit of a layman when it comes to post-Cretaceous bird evolution, and thus it was immensely enjoyable to learn more about these majestic animals. Brusatte does an excellent job in making these creatures sound extraordinary and his prose is fast and fun to read. Though not as ‘cool’ as his books on dinosaurs or even mammals, it is certainly as well-researched, and forms part of a growing log of one of the greatest popular palaeontology writers of our time.

[Spencer Knafelc]

loved this!
detailing the current state of knowledge of avian evolutionary history.
it's written by a paleontologist for a lay audience, and in impressive and accessible prose.

in what sense are birds dinosaurs? in the same sense that humans are mammals. the author traces their trajectory from the common dinosaur ancestors, to their handsome feathered descendants, to the transition to hollow-boned and neuron-dense modern birds.

inspires wonder for the process of evolution, for the paleontologists' aim of reconstructing an intricate evolutionary history from the rare cases where these creatures' intact delicate bones survive, and for the strangeness and beauty of all kinds of bird species, alive and extinct.

it slaps, i highly recommend

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great. As usual, I particularly appreciated Brusatte's commitment to mentioning and talking about the ongoing work in the field, and the scientists who are leading it. It makes the book feel much more connected to the scientific world, and helps ground Brusatte, who is not a bird researcher, with the knowledge that he really is pulling from experts in the field. Full of unique and charming birds, and a careful examination of their dinosaur ancestry. I think I liked the mammals book a touch more, but this was a fun read.

[Marcel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise book about how birds have evolved into the myriad distinct branches we know them as today and also tracing their earliest lineages way back to the dinosaurs. Great informative book about said topic. Very precise and well explained science, written by a expert on the field, a real Paleontologist. I mean, it’s a book about the origins of birds need I say more?? I mean I may be a little biased since birds are one of my favourite topics. Still, go read it!

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book about the origin and evolved history of birds. It discusses paleantology and the relationship of birds to the dinosaurs that existed in previous time periods. It is a fantastic education. It is well researched and presented. It is a fine education for everyone who experiences this book.

[Ed Stoddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brusatte never disappoints and is a master at bringing science to life on the page in a highly readable manner. My main nest egg from this enchanting book is the fossilized fact that birds are dinosaurs and that the K2 mass extinction event of 66 million years ago should be seen as the end of non-avian dinosaurs.
As a twitcher, I find this arresting: I am not just a bird watcher but a dinosaur watcher. And I will never look these creatures in my garden again without that fact imprinted on my mammalian mind ...

[Matthew Wiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me hooked from start to finish. I have an entirely new perspective when it comes to these amazing creatures. Such an informative and well written book that opens your eyes to the incredible evolutionary journey of birds.