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How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity
A marvelous journey into the world of bird evolution
How Birds Evolve explores how evolution has shaped the distinctive characteristics and behaviors we observe in birds today. Douglas Futuyma describes how evolutionary science illuminates the wonders of birds, ranging over topics such as the meaning and origin of species, the evolutionary history of bird diversity, and the evolution of avian reproductive behaviors, plumage ornaments, and social behaviors.
In this multifaceted book, Futuyma examines how birds evolved from nonavian dinosaurs and reveals what we can learn from the "family tree" of birds. He looks at the ways natural selection enables different forms of the same species to persist, and discusses how adaptation by natural selection accounts for the diverse life histories of birds and the rich variety of avian parenting styles, mating displays, and cooperative behaviors. He explains why some parts of the planet have so many more species than others, and asks what an evolutionary perspective brings to urgent questions about bird extinction and habitat destruction. Along the way, Futuyma provides an insider's perspective on how biologists practice evolutionary science, from studying the fossil record to comparing DNA sequences among and within species.
A must-read for bird enthusiasts and curious naturalists, How Birds Evolve shows how evolutionary biology helps us better understand birds and their natural history, and how the study of birds has informed all aspects of evolutionary science since the time of Darwin.
How Birds Evolve explores how evolution has shaped the distinctive characteristics and behaviors we observe in birds today. Douglas Futuyma describes how evolutionary science illuminates the wonders of birds, ranging over topics such as the meaning and origin of species, the evolutionary history of bird diversity, and the evolution of avian reproductive behaviors, plumage ornaments, and social behaviors.
In this multifaceted book, Futuyma examines how birds evolved from nonavian dinosaurs and reveals what we can learn from the "family tree" of birds. He looks at the ways natural selection enables different forms of the same species to persist, and discusses how adaptation by natural selection accounts for the diverse life histories of birds and the rich variety of avian parenting styles, mating displays, and cooperative behaviors. He explains why some parts of the planet have so many more species than others, and asks what an evolutionary perspective brings to urgent questions about bird extinction and habitat destruction. Along the way, Futuyma provides an insider's perspective on how biologists practice evolutionary science, from studying the fossil record to comparing DNA sequences among and within species.
A must-read for bird enthusiasts and curious naturalists, How Birds Evolve shows how evolutionary biology helps us better understand birds and their natural history, and how the study of birds has informed all aspects of evolutionary science since the time of Darwin.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published October 19, 2021
33 people are currently reading
358 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 5, 2022
A wonderful exploration of evolutionary principles through the wonder, diversity, and beauty that are birds. Futuyma expertly brings the evolution, diversity, and behavior of birds to life through understandable text that brings together the evolutionary principles that apply to all live, but are so beautifully illustrated in birds. Readers will understand how the diversity and beauty of birds arose and are maintained and why it is important to understand and conserve biodiversity of our planet.
November 24, 2022
Excellent. Very technical for a popular science book but well-written and understandable with just a few personal bits, adding to rather than distracting from.
August 22, 2022
This will be the best book I read this year. I've been reading it for a long time, marking it like a law school textbook. The book explains evolution and speciation, but with birds as the only subject. It reminded me of how adults always say, "Gee whiz, I wish I could go back to college and just take classes and learn." Which I've always thought is a stupid thing to say because (a) nothing stops them from doing so, (b) there's like a million free college classes online, and (c) why does anyone need college to learn? When I was in college I just wanted to get out so I could read and learn about whatever I wanted. And now I do! But back to the book, it's definitely closer to a college textbook than any "pop" science book. Futuyma, an emeritus professor of evolutionary biology whose textbooks were the national standard, does not assume his reader is dumb. Rather, he assumes his reader knows nothing, and wants to know everything about the evolution of birds. So while the book is filled with science and details that will confound the readers who don't just glaze over those parts, it still is extremely readable.
I never took to biology, but I question whether I ever had a good teacher. I never knew what biology was for apart from memorizing more and more granular diagrams of the cell and then regurgitating them onto an exam. It isn't until I've got into birding that I've been exposed to the myriad mysteries biologists and field researchers are trying to solve. Like 4th grade history is always the history of California, 7th grade science should always be Darwin. Futuyma clearly loves Darwin and he returns to him at every opportunity to explain the origins of evolutionary biology and how we're still working on the same questions today (in part because Darwin was such a preternatural genius).
The book covers the normal questions an evolutionary biology class would cover: What is a species? How do they change? What is natural selection? How does it work? Perhaps Wikipedia could've answered these questions for me, but I'm glad I read this book because Futuyma does such a supremely perfect job.
Fun things I learned:
Birds did not descend from dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs.
Crocodiles are the closest living relatives of birds.
The salient feature of dinosaurs--important for bird origins--is that unlike almost all other vertebrates, they were bipedal, walking on hind legs held vertically below the body instead of sprawling to the side, as in other reptiles.
No non-avian dinosaur survived the K-T extinction that ended the cretaceous period. Most of the cretaceous birds also died, meaning today's living birds all descended from the very few bird lineages that survived, likely those that did not depend on trees and forest.
Diving birds developed denser bones so they'd be less buoyant, therefore requiring less energy to remain underwater.
Only humans, birds, and a few archosaur lineages--the dinosaurs--evolved habitual bipedal walking. (That story again: stop, drink your coffee, and realize that only humans and birds walk around on two feet.)
Among the hundreds of thousands of species of terrestrial vertebrates that have existed since the Devonian period, no other animal but birds has evolved anything like the basic structure of feathers. And hope, if we read Dickinson.
Swifts and hummingbirds have evolved structures for such constant flight that they've essentially lost the ability to walk on their feet; they can only use them to perch.
Organisms don't perceive a need to adapt and then change themselves to fit. Some are simply born with variant genes that alter characteristics, and those characteristics make them more likely to survive until only or most of those with the characteristics are left. But, critically, the differences do not originate "in response" to situation or stimuli; just normal genetic variation. In other words, variation within species is simply the raw material that evolution works with.
The most famous example of observed evolution is the replacement of pale gray peppered moths by a black variant during the industrial revolution in England. The mutation that makes the moth black had occurred countless times in the species history, as we know from preindustrial museum specimens. But it always been kept rare because it was disadvantageous: it made black moths more visible to insect eating birds since they stood out on the pale tree bark. The black mutation became advantageous when pollution darkened tree trunks: now it made the moths less visible to insect-eating birds, and so the black moth variation increased greatly. Advantage depends on context.
Two biologists studied Darwin's Finches for 40 years in the Galapagos. They documented natural selection and evolutionary changes in the finches. The most dramatic event was massive mortality in 1977, when a drought severely reduced the supply of the small seeds that were the finches' major food. The survivors had larger than average bills that enabled them to feed on the large, hard seeds of a certain plant. The average bill depth was about 8.8 mm before the drought but was 9.8 mm among the survivors, and this carried over into their offspring. But 1983 brought heavy rainfall that fostered the growth of vines that smothered the plant and led to an abundance of small seeded plants. Again, there was a massive mortality, but now small billed birds, which feed more efficiently on small seeds, survived best. The result was a reversal of evolution, to a smaller average bill than the population had had in 1976! Small, big, then even smaller!
Sometimes there is genetic hitchhiking in evolution. For example, a bird’s color may change based on a change to its diet. The color change did not result from natural selection, it simply tagged along with the diet change that natural selection favored. Biology is hard!
Like cheerleaders or an attractive group of roommates, biologists have observed that some male birds will be more successful in mating if they travel with more attractive male companions. The companions may have more success than they would independently by working in a group. I regret to say the author didn’t use the term “wingmen” in this discussion.
The poster boy of sexual selection is obviously the peacock. Female peafowl mate more often with males with longer tails and more eye spots. Even more interestingly, if a female mates with a less popular male, the female is more likely to mate with more males! You can date a 10 or two 5s!
The Andean Duck is 30 cm long but has a 41 cm penis complete with ridges, bumps, and a corkscrew shape. Duck vaginas also are spiral but in the reverse direction. Duck sex is a book unto itself.
Acorn woodpeckers live in social groups, with several females that all lay eggs in the same nest hole. If a female lays her eggs first the other females will destroy the eggs. Eggs only survive when all the females lay them on the same day.
Natural selection only cares about the survival of the individual; not the species. Social behavior and cooperation are not the result of natural selection. Cooperation benefits the individual through reciprocity, delayed benefit, and help from relatives. Altruistic behavior can evolve if the fitness cost to the actor is less than the fitness benefit to the recipient.
Pine trees evolved cone features to deter squirrels from eating seeds, much like the bird enthusiast who creates more and more contraptions to deter squirrels from eating the pine seeds he leaves out for birds.
Although evolution can move as quickly as one generation, speciation (when two distinct groups with the same forebears no longer reproduce with each other) generally takes one million years.
Complex features that are lost during evolution almost never re-evolve in anything like the same form. For example, none of the 3000+ species of snakes have re-evolved legs, and no birds have re-evolved teeth.
High diversity of species in mountain regions maybe historical. First, mountains offer more opportunity for populations of a species to become isolated in different valleys or a different peaks and to become different species. Second, mountains may also have reduced rates of extinction: as climates fluctuate, a bird species may continue to prosper by shifting to a different elevation that provides the temperature and rainfall regime to which is already adopted.
Populations in birds and mammals in colder regions tend to have larger body sizes than populations in warmer regions. Larger size reduces the loss of body heat because it reduces the ratio of surface area to body mass, so natural selection favors larger size in cooler climates but smaller size in warmer climates.
This was simply a great book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about evolutionary biology, anyone who wants to learn about birds, and anyone who just wants to learn.
I never took to biology, but I question whether I ever had a good teacher. I never knew what biology was for apart from memorizing more and more granular diagrams of the cell and then regurgitating them onto an exam. It isn't until I've got into birding that I've been exposed to the myriad mysteries biologists and field researchers are trying to solve. Like 4th grade history is always the history of California, 7th grade science should always be Darwin. Futuyma clearly loves Darwin and he returns to him at every opportunity to explain the origins of evolutionary biology and how we're still working on the same questions today (in part because Darwin was such a preternatural genius).
The book covers the normal questions an evolutionary biology class would cover: What is a species? How do they change? What is natural selection? How does it work? Perhaps Wikipedia could've answered these questions for me, but I'm glad I read this book because Futuyma does such a supremely perfect job.
Fun things I learned:
Birds did not descend from dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs.
Crocodiles are the closest living relatives of birds.
The salient feature of dinosaurs--important for bird origins--is that unlike almost all other vertebrates, they were bipedal, walking on hind legs held vertically below the body instead of sprawling to the side, as in other reptiles.
No non-avian dinosaur survived the K-T extinction that ended the cretaceous period. Most of the cretaceous birds also died, meaning today's living birds all descended from the very few bird lineages that survived, likely those that did not depend on trees and forest.
Diving birds developed denser bones so they'd be less buoyant, therefore requiring less energy to remain underwater.
Only humans, birds, and a few archosaur lineages--the dinosaurs--evolved habitual bipedal walking. (That story again: stop, drink your coffee, and realize that only humans and birds walk around on two feet.)
Among the hundreds of thousands of species of terrestrial vertebrates that have existed since the Devonian period, no other animal but birds has evolved anything like the basic structure of feathers. And hope, if we read Dickinson.
Swifts and hummingbirds have evolved structures for such constant flight that they've essentially lost the ability to walk on their feet; they can only use them to perch.
Organisms don't perceive a need to adapt and then change themselves to fit. Some are simply born with variant genes that alter characteristics, and those characteristics make them more likely to survive until only or most of those with the characteristics are left. But, critically, the differences do not originate "in response" to situation or stimuli; just normal genetic variation. In other words, variation within species is simply the raw material that evolution works with.
The most famous example of observed evolution is the replacement of pale gray peppered moths by a black variant during the industrial revolution in England. The mutation that makes the moth black had occurred countless times in the species history, as we know from preindustrial museum specimens. But it always been kept rare because it was disadvantageous: it made black moths more visible to insect eating birds since they stood out on the pale tree bark. The black mutation became advantageous when pollution darkened tree trunks: now it made the moths less visible to insect-eating birds, and so the black moth variation increased greatly. Advantage depends on context.
Two biologists studied Darwin's Finches for 40 years in the Galapagos. They documented natural selection and evolutionary changes in the finches. The most dramatic event was massive mortality in 1977, when a drought severely reduced the supply of the small seeds that were the finches' major food. The survivors had larger than average bills that enabled them to feed on the large, hard seeds of a certain plant. The average bill depth was about 8.8 mm before the drought but was 9.8 mm among the survivors, and this carried over into their offspring. But 1983 brought heavy rainfall that fostered the growth of vines that smothered the plant and led to an abundance of small seeded plants. Again, there was a massive mortality, but now small billed birds, which feed more efficiently on small seeds, survived best. The result was a reversal of evolution, to a smaller average bill than the population had had in 1976! Small, big, then even smaller!
Sometimes there is genetic hitchhiking in evolution. For example, a bird’s color may change based on a change to its diet. The color change did not result from natural selection, it simply tagged along with the diet change that natural selection favored. Biology is hard!
Like cheerleaders or an attractive group of roommates, biologists have observed that some male birds will be more successful in mating if they travel with more attractive male companions. The companions may have more success than they would independently by working in a group. I regret to say the author didn’t use the term “wingmen” in this discussion.
The poster boy of sexual selection is obviously the peacock. Female peafowl mate more often with males with longer tails and more eye spots. Even more interestingly, if a female mates with a less popular male, the female is more likely to mate with more males! You can date a 10 or two 5s!
The Andean Duck is 30 cm long but has a 41 cm penis complete with ridges, bumps, and a corkscrew shape. Duck vaginas also are spiral but in the reverse direction. Duck sex is a book unto itself.
Acorn woodpeckers live in social groups, with several females that all lay eggs in the same nest hole. If a female lays her eggs first the other females will destroy the eggs. Eggs only survive when all the females lay them on the same day.
Natural selection only cares about the survival of the individual; not the species. Social behavior and cooperation are not the result of natural selection. Cooperation benefits the individual through reciprocity, delayed benefit, and help from relatives. Altruistic behavior can evolve if the fitness cost to the actor is less than the fitness benefit to the recipient.
Pine trees evolved cone features to deter squirrels from eating seeds, much like the bird enthusiast who creates more and more contraptions to deter squirrels from eating the pine seeds he leaves out for birds.
Although evolution can move as quickly as one generation, speciation (when two distinct groups with the same forebears no longer reproduce with each other) generally takes one million years.
Complex features that are lost during evolution almost never re-evolve in anything like the same form. For example, none of the 3000+ species of snakes have re-evolved legs, and no birds have re-evolved teeth.
High diversity of species in mountain regions maybe historical. First, mountains offer more opportunity for populations of a species to become isolated in different valleys or a different peaks and to become different species. Second, mountains may also have reduced rates of extinction: as climates fluctuate, a bird species may continue to prosper by shifting to a different elevation that provides the temperature and rainfall regime to which is already adopted.
Populations in birds and mammals in colder regions tend to have larger body sizes than populations in warmer regions. Larger size reduces the loss of body heat because it reduces the ratio of surface area to body mass, so natural selection favors larger size in cooler climates but smaller size in warmer climates.
This was simply a great book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about evolutionary biology, anyone who wants to learn about birds, and anyone who just wants to learn.
May 13, 2025
Good book. Here are the most interesting things I learned from it:
- I re-learned how evolution takes place. Specifically, my understanding of sexual selection, polymorphism, and of genetic variation within a species all improved.
- I understood better how bird evolution took place around and after the K-Pg Extinction. Specifically, I learned how ratites evolved (that they were the first of the living birds to diverge), and how Passeriformes (perching birds) form the largest clade of living birds today. Overall, I better understood the phylogenetic tree of birds.
- I learned about how a "species" is defined - specifically the biological and the phylogenetic species concepts (BSC and PSC, respectively). I also understood (to some extent) how bird species diverge. Best of all, I learned about the Great American Biotic Interchange and about the question of Latitudinal Diversity Gradient.
- The last chapter discusses climate change and how birds can evolve/make adjustments to combat it. This is both (scientifically) interesting, and a heartfelt and urgent appeal to the reader. I thought this was very welcome.
What I did not like about the book:
- It did not spend enough time talking about the evolution of specific features of birds. Indeed, the question of the following features is not mentioned at all: powered flight, their breathing apparatus, the air sacs in their bones, the fusing of their bones, etc. and the evolution of feathers is only mentioned in passing.
- A lot of the evidence provided for certain phenomena is both anecdotal, and specific to species found in the areas best explored by the author (evidently, North America, Europe and Australia). As a result, many species found in the tropics are only mentioned in passing and do not get as much visibility as they should.
- I re-learned how evolution takes place. Specifically, my understanding of sexual selection, polymorphism, and of genetic variation within a species all improved.
- I understood better how bird evolution took place around and after the K-Pg Extinction. Specifically, I learned how ratites evolved (that they were the first of the living birds to diverge), and how Passeriformes (perching birds) form the largest clade of living birds today. Overall, I better understood the phylogenetic tree of birds.
- I learned about how a "species" is defined - specifically the biological and the phylogenetic species concepts (BSC and PSC, respectively). I also understood (to some extent) how bird species diverge. Best of all, I learned about the Great American Biotic Interchange and about the question of Latitudinal Diversity Gradient.
- The last chapter discusses climate change and how birds can evolve/make adjustments to combat it. This is both (scientifically) interesting, and a heartfelt and urgent appeal to the reader. I thought this was very welcome.
What I did not like about the book:
- It did not spend enough time talking about the evolution of specific features of birds. Indeed, the question of the following features is not mentioned at all: powered flight, their breathing apparatus, the air sacs in their bones, the fusing of their bones, etc. and the evolution of feathers is only mentioned in passing.
- A lot of the evidence provided for certain phenomena is both anecdotal, and specific to species found in the areas best explored by the author (evidently, North America, Europe and Australia). As a result, many species found in the tropics are only mentioned in passing and do not get as much visibility as they should.
April 7, 2025
One of the most interesting books I've ever read. It certainly gets a lot more technical and into the nitty-gritty than any other bird (or non-bird) book I've read. However, I think it really paid off and gave more richness to the knowledge and understanding imparted in it without sacrificing (much) clarity. It may be all about birds, but that's largely just the lens the book is through and the examples Futuyma uses as he explains many of the processes of evolution and speciation in general.
It answers so many of the questions I've always had, but had never really been able to express. For example, how "birds are dinosaurs" but also that dinosaurs are reptiles, the general evolutionary tree of birds, and how so many of the granular evolutionary processes work. It also answered so many questions I never thought to ask. Like how birds split from dinosaurs before the K-T extinction (meteor), but that event killed almost all birds, too, meaning all modern birds are derived from the very few (likely non-tree-dependent waterfowl) that survived. Other fun facts are that crocodiles are birds' closest living relative, flamingoes are pretty much their own thing, and only birds, humans, and dinosaurs have ever developed bidepal walking! So, so much fascinating stuff in here.
It answers so many of the questions I've always had, but had never really been able to express. For example, how "birds are dinosaurs" but also that dinosaurs are reptiles, the general evolutionary tree of birds, and how so many of the granular evolutionary processes work. It also answered so many questions I never thought to ask. Like how birds split from dinosaurs before the K-T extinction (meteor), but that event killed almost all birds, too, meaning all modern birds are derived from the very few (likely non-tree-dependent waterfowl) that survived. Other fun facts are that crocodiles are birds' closest living relative, flamingoes are pretty much their own thing, and only birds, humans, and dinosaurs have ever developed bidepal walking! So, so much fascinating stuff in here.
November 23, 2021
The book gives nice overview of the current evolutionary research on birds, but this broad perspective prevents Futuyma from going into much detail. Each chapter can be used as a starting point for further reading. The writing hovers between textbook explanations and popular science. Some sections are quite technical and might be difficult to follow for laymen. However, the examples are clear and well-chosen. I also learned many new facts about avian evolution. Some chapters contain some personal stories, but they do not add much. It mostly concerns bird species he saw during his travels. It would have been nicer to describe these observations in more detail and use them as a starting point to explain certain concepts. In general, I missed a historical narrative. The book really focuses on evolutionary concepts and does not dive into the historical development of these ideas (with a few exceptions). This is obviously a personal taste and it does not diminish the quality of the book.
April 15, 2023
Douglas Futuyma is a retired professor of evolutionary biology, published about insects, and, in his own words, has no professional qualifications in ornithology. However, he is an active birder, knows a lot, and can write in an engaging way about the evolution of birds. He covers the whole world of birds but the main focus is on the birds of the USA. To really follow the text it is useful to have pretty good background knowledge of bird species, taxonomy, and genomics. The book has a section of 46 tables of bird pictures and several drawings but those cover only a fraction of all bird species mentioned in the book. The various phylogenic branching diagrams and illustrations of changes in bird species over time are really interesting.
January 10, 2022
Solid book, lots of great summary of evolutionary concepts and discussion. The author’s writing is approachable and fun. My least favorite chapter is probably the one about bird’s social behavior, though it might be because I don’t read behavior literature enough, but the language and deliberation is too anthropocentric for me. The rest is great, it’s nice to read something not as dense as a textbook but with textbook level knowledge.
April 27, 2025
I’m lucky to have found this book in an independent bookshop. A lot of the studies mentioned I remembered reading in ornithology and evolutionary biology classes in college. Some of the paleontological findings and studies mentioned I didn’t find as interesting compared to the speciations and ecologies of birds that were discussed, but overall an interesting book.
December 30, 2025
This is an amazing read that opens of the evolution of birds. It answered many questions I always wondered about polymorphisms and bird evolution in a way that wasn’t too over the top and hard to understand. Would highly recommend.
November 30, 2021
Really a fascinating and enlightening read for the bird lover, be they of scientific background or not.
June 18, 2022
This is equally about evolution and birds. What can be better than that?
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews