Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior

by Roger J. Lederer

“Reveals the strange and wondrous adaptations birds rely on to get by.” —National Audubon Society When we see a bird flying from branch to branch happily chirping, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom, flight, and feathers. What we don’t see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment. Beaks, Bones, and Bird Songs guides the reader through the myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch, which manages extreme weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage in winter. Or urban birds, which navigate traffic through a keen understanding of posted speed limits. In engaging and accessible prose, Roger Lederer shares how and why birds use their sensory abilities to see ultraviolet, find food without seeing it, fly thousands of miles without stopping, change their songs in noisy cities, navigate by smell, and much more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Birds, Audiobook, Animals, Biology

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2016

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brain. Is full.

I requested this book because it looked interesting. I didn't know much about birds at the time, other than. "Gosh, that bird sure is purdy and it's singin' is purdy too!"

Now, I will never look at a bird the same way again.

The author CLEARLY knows and LOVES his subject. This wasn't a labor of love, it's just love, pure and simple in word form. The reader can clearly feel and experience the author's love and enthusiasm for the feathered ones around us.

He is obviously incredibly well versed in the subject of birds, but despite me not knowing a thing, I never ONCE felt like I was being talked down to, like I should have known all of this already. It was told in an engaging way that doesn't turn off the reader. No holier than thou. The information is accessible and draws the reader in.

And unfortunately, spit me out. It took me about three weeks to read this book, because I kept stopping every five paragraphs or so to take notes. And not just on Goodreads. I took notes in a NOTEBOOK. I haven't done that since school, when I HAD to, and sometimes, not even then. This book was THAT good, THAT informative. I wanted to write it down so I would remember the information and share it with others. It was infectious!

Also, the notes/bibliography/etc, started at page 241 out of about 280 or so. The bibliography is 17 pages long and it is broken down into the chapters. The books he used for each chapter, divided neatly for reference. I LOVED it. Order, especially with books, is my thing and that rang all of my bells. Not to mention, FUTURE READING LIST!!!

Ok, to counter my rather chipper and over the top happiness, now for the bad.

Not with the book, no, never with the book, but with the failings of humanity that the book has to point out. Birds don't live in a vacuum, they have to deal with humans, and as the last few non-fiction books I have read have also driven home, is the fact that humanity sucks and the only thing we are really good at is killing other living things.

But the book is ended on a note of hope, that we will learn and that birdwatchers will save birds through their love for and active involvement in protecting the birds we have left.

I'm still rather negative about humanity in general, but I think that means I need a light, fluffy book next.

I highly recommend this book to anybody. You don't need to be an expert to enjoy this book and if you are an expert, I'm sure there are quite a few facts that you will learn from this book.

Five, flying, chirping stars!

My thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

[Chrissie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on this halfway through.

This is not a book to listen to. Nor is it one to read from start to finish. I can see it working better as a reference book in paper format IF it has a good index. It is filled with statistics, tons of tidbits of information, that although valuable, are not possible to absorb in the audio format. Facts are heaped upon facts.

The narrator of the audiobook is Charles Constant. He reads clearly and at a normal speed.

In a paper format, equipped with a good index, perhaps then the book would be worth more stars.

*********************

*Two Owls At Eton 5 stars
*Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl 5 stars
*The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology 5 stars
*Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds 4 stars
*One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives 4 stars
*White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows 3 stars
*Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival 3 stars
*A Year in the Maine Woods 3 stars
*A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich 3 stars
*Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior 2 stars
*The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think TBR

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a lot of good information about birds & it was an enjoyable audiobook. It was a bit dense at times. For instance, I'm not well versed in the scientific names of bird anatomy & Lederer felt that one quick explanation of the parts were enough, so I had to backtrack occasionally. I prefer that to repetition, but I found the ebook was almost required to skim through after listening to sections of the audiobook.

Despite all the information, I was disappointed by the lack of depth at times. I'm not sure how he could have done better without bogging down, though. It's a huge subject, so mostly it's a case of me wanting to follow specific paths that I found fascinating. It's a good thing when an author leaves me wanting a bit more.

He broke up his book into 7 chapters & covered all kinds of birds in each. He picked excellent examples to compare & contrast, too.

Table of Contents
Introduction: It’s Tough To Be a Bird
BIRDS, BEAKS, AND BELLIES The Whys and Wherefores of Foraging:
CAN YOU SEE UV? How Birds Employ Their Sensory Abilities:
UPS AND DOWNS The Animals That Conquered the Air:
TRAVEL HITHER AND YON Migration and Navigation in an Endless Sky:
WEATHER SURVIVAL STRATEGIES Enduring Heat, Cold, Wind, and Rain:
BIRD COMMUNITIES How Birds Live Together:
HUMAN INFLUENCES What We Do To Birds:

Highly recommended.

[Cookie M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a review of the audio book read by Charles Constant. Sometimes I hope to actually read a text copy of this book, as I am interested in the subject matter.

If you have ever sat through a lecture by a professor who just read his material in a semi-interested, but fast paced manner, as if he was in a hurry to finish and go to dinner, you will understand my objection to this presentation. The facts flew by like birds, to quickly for me to catch them.

DNF.

[Deb✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I love to wake up in the mornings and hear the birds singing to bring in a new day! I love birds and "Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs" was a terrific book that covered so many different facts about a huge amount of birds from all around the world. It's amazing all of the hurdles that birds have to cross in nature in order just to survive.

One part I really enjoyed about this very all inclusive book was be able to learn more information about all the migratory birds across the world, as I find them truly amazing.

I felt this book was well researched and held a wealth of facts and information about birds for all bird lovers and people that are interested in learning about them. To me, this entire book was fascinating and I'm glad I found it to read! I love birds and all animals and really enjoyed this book. I'm sure at some point I will read it again. ♡

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this one is well-written and pretty interesting, I kept reading a chapter or two, stalling, trying again, stalling again -- until it came due. I did learn a few things about birds, but I rediscovered why I'm not a birder. TMI for my level of interest. My problem, not the book's. OK, it is pretty dry. Birders are likely to find the book more interesting. Oh, well. 2.5 stars for what I read, revised down after seeing the following 2-star review. It wasn't just me!

"An annoying and disappointing read, although you are sure to learn something.
Constructed as series of thematically linked bundles of information, it gives the impression that little distinction is made between facts, hypotheses and opinions. ..."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one had its moments and I enjoyed it well enough.

Birds really can be interesting and on the strength of that are the three stars. I think everyone should have some basic knowledge about the countless beings we share our earth with. Birds are important.

At times this felt like being blasted by a firehose of information about birds. One fact after another. Occasionally there was a little bit of a story behind the facts, but the author is clearly more of a bird expert than a storyteller. At least the chapters divided all this info into categories.

If you would like to know more about birds, this is definitely your book.

[Cynthia Cordova · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has SO much information like literally no way I retain any of it lmao but I enjoyed reading it a ton! Birds are very cool. And because this book is included in audible memberships, I got to read it. Otherwise, not sure I would have learned of it’s existence at all.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a birder, I found this one very interesting. Plenty of incredible facts to chew on here, but this is probably not for the casual reader, unless you are really "into" birds. Keep that in mind.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Birds are amazing, and not just because of Roger Lederer’s (or my) bias. His new “Beaks, Bones, and Bird Songs” is a comprehensive book about birds, not limited to the elements mentioned in its title. In particular, he explains the evolved physical and behavioral characteristics of these animals and why they’re important in the face of threats ranging from the immediate to long-term. There is always a trade-off, a disadvantage for every advantage. However, it’s not a totally bleak picture: how adaptable birds can be comes up many times in many ways. Plus, there are many unknowns, meaning more areas for future research, which can help inform conservation.

Lederer tells you why there is not one perfect, universal bird, but thousands of species. His examples come from all across the ornithological spectrum, with the extreme ends often helping illustrate their incredible diversity. The Kiwi is often at one of these ends, as are hummingbirds, and penguins. The species are from all over the world, not just the familiar ones in North America, and he chooses to mention them in context of certain adaptations. Photos are included in case you have never seen (or maybe never even heard of!) a certain species, and some figures complement the writing, such as the physical forces involved in flight, though these are better seen on paper rather than in an ebook.

While it took me a while to finish, this is the kind of book you can pick up at any point and continue from where you left off. Very well organized throughout, the author’s academic background guides the scientific layout. It is crammed full of information, but in concise, digestible sentences, never excessive or boring. It builds on what was previously discussed, and the author provides a summary at the end of each chapter. There’s always more to learn about birds. After you read this book, you can observe them and have a better idea of why they are doing what they are doing.

Note: this e-book was provided through Net Galley. For more reviews, follow my blog at http://matt-stats.blogspot.com/

[Rianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

#BirdsAreDope

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough and not unpleasant to read but fairly dry and academic.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book, and it was a close decision to give it four and not five stars. I learned quite a lot about it, including how birds manage to have depth perception in flight despite having very little binocular vision (they use the rate at which objects expand in their field of view as they move forward), which had been bothering me. The reason I decided to only give it four stars was that I didn't find it very well-written: a lot of it seems to consist of what felt like laundry lists of birds with traits the author found interesting.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much interesting information about birds. I listened to this book, but I plan to purchase it for my library

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Birds are awesome!

[Daniel Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

An annoying and disappointing read, although you are sure to learn something.

Constructed as series of thematically linked bundles of information, it gives the impression that little distinction is made between facts, hypotheses and opinions. Snippets of information are often given without naming the associated researchers (you wil have to deduce who did what through the bibliography) and this thoroughly annoyed me. There's a lack of flow in the text, as blocks of information are forcibly connected. Irrelevant personal commentaries and anecdotes are sometimes jammed in and achieve little. Figures are generally poorly chosen and/or barely informative.

A note : the author wrote that collecting the down of the Down Eider is done only in Iceland, but this isn't true. as this is also happening in Quebec. The Duvetnor society has been doing it since 1982 (I've worked with them for two years); the family responsible for managing the Biquette Island sanctuary also collects the down.

If interested, I would suggest renting the book and skimming it.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is written by a self proclaimed bird lover yet he recounts many experiments done to birds either in the wild or caged in a lab. He describes netting birds in the wild, confining them to cages, climbing up to nests, scaring the mother bird away and banding all the baby birds, plugging birds noses, covering their eyes.....the list goes on. At the same time he decries how difficult humans have made survival for birds. Does he not see the disconnect? This bothered me. All of the experiments he described had nothing to do with helping birds survive but rather just to satisfy the experimenters curiosity at the birds expense. Not OK in my book.

And on top of that this book is exceedingly dull. There is no narrative but rather just an eye glazing list of different traits of different birds have spooled out one after the other. I found it very hard to stay focused for more than a few minutes.

I did not finish this book and do not recommend it.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about birds. it is a wonderful listen, he talks about habitats, feeding, how they keep warm, just lots of cool stuff. I didn't realize that chicks in eggs tell the mother when to turn the eggs! Lots of cool, and some technical explanations of how the wings work, how they deal with food, even how they terrorize predators! Very fun and educational.

[Wendelle]

encyclopedic, exhaustive list of the diversity of ways birds adapt in their foraging habits, migratory habits, flying skills, etc... this is the book for you only if that is exactly what you're looking for

[Chrisjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable book. There was a lot of information delivered but it never felt boring or overwhelming. I especially enjoyed the final section where adaptions were covered and climate change was discussed.

[Leslie Moellering · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned many fascinating things about birds in this book, but at times, it just felt like a list of facts smashed together without break to know that you were moving on to another bird.

[v · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a thorough and well-organized discussion of the hows and whys of birds, but some of the more technical parts moved a little too quickly. How do birds fly? Don't ask me.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

No anecdotes in this one, which I find enjoyable. Also a large focus on migration which I enjoyed. Different from most of the other bird books I’ve read as of late.

[Craig Amason · Rating 4 out of 5]

My not-so-frequent 4-star rating of this book is attributed to two factors: it is well-written, and I have been fascinated by birds since I was a child. Lederer's primary focus in this book of popular ornithology is the amazing evolutionary and environmental adaptations these descendants of dinosaurs have made to survive to modern times. With over 10,000 avian species worldwide, these creatures have their own taxonomic class (Aves) but are still closely related to reptiles. They maintain many of the features of the dinosaurs that inhabited the planet millions of years ago, including feathers, although modern bird plumage is considerably thicker and takes on a more prominent role in bird anatomy.

Lederer does a splendid job of making this book informative and entertaining, especially because he incorporates so many interesting facts, often dispelling myths along the way. Here are a few examples. As children, we were always told that if you touch a baby bird or even the nest it is cradled in, the mother bird will abandon the defiled offspring and the nest as well. Not true (like all animals, birds will not easily give up on the young they have invested so much time and energy birthing). I have read in numerous places that birds can eat seed laced with hot pepper because they have no sense of taste. Not true (they just don't have sensitivity to the heat in the pepper). The list goes on and on.

The author goes into detail about birds' senses (they can smell really well), anatomical features, flight, non-flight, characteristics, survival tactics, and adaptation to the built environment of human beings. Turns out glass is more deadly to birds than just about anything else we have introduced on the planet, with the exception of climate change caused by our activities. However, some birds have managed not only to survive but actually flourish in urban environments, coming up with all kinds of clever strategies to find food and shelter in spite of the many dangers that surround them. The section where Lederer discusses birds' ability to learn the average speed of vehicles in certain places to calculate their escape from being hit is astounding.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the book is the overview of bird migration, with an examination of patterns, great distances, challenges, obstacles, and perils associated with these mass movements of various species and why they do it. It is probably the most spectacular collective activity of any member of the animal kingdom apart from the human species, and roughly 60% of all birds take part in it. Anyone who has ever used the term "bird brain" to describe someone of inferior intelligence needs to come up with another form of insult. Tiny as they are, the brains of birds empower these creatures to do remarkable things, on the ground and in the air.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars (liked a lot)

A clear and comprehensive scientific look at many aspects of birds.

[Max Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Note: I listened to this on audiobook and found the narrator to be subpar, this might have effected my experience)

"Beaks Bones and Bird Songs" is a book about avian survival that zooms in on what many people overlook: the extreme situations birds go through regularly just to live. We view birds as living carefree lives of freedom and grace, when in reality they are constantly on alert against the thousand things that could kill them.

This book was interesting for sure, and there are certain parts that will stick with me. But the further along I got, the harder it got to pay attention and keep myself invested. I'm somebody who's pretty obsessed with birds, and even I reached a point of "ok, we get it, they're really strong!"

The tone of writing is a bit dry, and the fresh perspective on this topic only lasts for a couple chapters. For me, the beginning of the book was the most interesting (there's one great passage in which the author describes the kind of athleticism required by birds that fly over a mountain range every year as they migrate, and spoiler alert, it's pretty darn athletic).

For somebody with an academic interest, this book helps add on to a foundation of knowledge on behavioral ornithology. For anybody else, it's not the kind of non-fiction book that can keep a casual reader entertained.

[Hapzydeco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due to the efforts of some enlightened politicians and activist citizen groups, Roger Lederer is optimistic about the survival of birds. However, according to Roger, humans need to partner up with these always on task creatures to make survival certain.

[Kate Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book because I loved the cover and I wanted to learn something about birds. While this book was fact-filled, it was written in a very dry style. There was no narrative, just an encyclopedic list of facts. Somehow I made it all the way through this book without taking in a lot.

[Jason Hebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of interesting facts but mostly lacking in narrative structure.

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Compact and Fascinating Overview of Birds

Beaks, Bones, and Bird Songs (2016) by Roger Lederer is all about its subtitle: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior. Lederer covers Foraging, Sensory Abilities, Flight, Migration and Navigation, Survival Strategies for Weather, Communities, and Human Influence. The book percolates with interesting information on birds in general and on particular species. As he proceeds, Lederer also covers a bit of the history of ornithology, citing earlier landmark studies and explanations of birds that according to contemporary science are either woefully incorrect or still accurate.

Throughout, the main point Lederer repeatedly demonstrates is that birds are amazing creatures of incredible diversity in their habitats, sizes, shapes, physiologies, lifestyles, abilities, and so on. While being perfectly adapted to their environments over millennia and even millions of years, birds’ existence is increasingly threatened and changed by human activity (cities, habitat degradation, hunting, etc. etc.). Everyday life is a struggle for survival which birds negotiate with all their intelligence, learning, and senses, making choices about how and where and when to forage for food, to nest and raise young, and to migrate, etc., all to maximize chances for success and minimize chances for failure. Although he does not push a didactic conservation agenda, he does reveal ways in which humans harmfully or helpfully affect avian life and concludes that “We have to be partners with birds.”

Here are some examples of the interesting things I learned from the book:

Why birds don’t have teeth and how gizzards partially replace them.
How sandpipers detect prey deep in sandy mud without seeing or smelling them.
Why woodpeckers don’t get headaches.
Why vultures defecate on their feet and have bald heads.
How birds see colors and UV etc. and use one eye or both eyes etc.
Why birds sing (it’s not for joy).
How birds fly (including soaring, gliding, diving, etc.).
How flocks and formations work (including how birds in dense flocks avoid flying into each other).
Why some birds migrate (and how they know when to go and how they fly such long distances).
How birds use sun maps, star maps, geomagnetic crystals, olfaction, infrasound, and landmarks to navigate.
How birds adjust their body temperatures to deal with cold and heat.
How and why birds mob (gang up on larger predators).
The Arctic Tern flies to the Antarctic and back, up to 66,000 miles per year, enough for three round trips to the moon if they live full life spans.
Acorn woodpeckers wedge acorns into trees so tightly that no other animals or birds can remove them, so they themselves can later break them open to get the nuts.
If other jays see them hiding their acorn caches, they’ll hide them again later, but only if they themselves are cache robbers.
Babies still in eggs tell parents to turn them right side up or make them warmer etc.
In each ecosystem and niche and guild, each bird plays a particular role in relationships with the other living parts of the environment.
Birds can get drunk on fermented fruit.
Diversity in an ecosystem is necessary, like a sophisticated and complicated watch with many functions and parts: remove enough of the parts and it will finally stop working.
Evolution and natural selection are good at making creatures change to suit changing environments etc., but since industrial revolution the pace of change has outstripped what evolution can do.
Birds in cities develop differently (behavior, color, wing size, song frequency, egg laying, singing, migrating or not, viability, etc.) from the same species in the country.
Global warming is making birds migrate earlier and fly farther north and breed earlier, etc.

Anyone interested in birds should read this book, though perhaps ornithologists and other experts might not find as much new interesting information as I did.

The audiobook reader Charles Constant is professional and smooth, though perhaps he reads a touch more speedily than I’d have liked.