A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds

by Scott Weidensaul

Hardcover, 2021

Call number

598.156 WEI

Collection

Publication

W. W. Norton & Company (2021), 400 pages

Description

"An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of bird migration-the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans or fly above the highest mountains, to go weeks without sleep, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch-has exploded. Scientists have made astounding discoveries: certain species, such as thrushes, can avoid dehydration over long flights by "drinking" from their own muscles and organs, extending their flight range by almost thirty percent, or more than two thousand miles, and while we've known for decades that birds are somehow able to orient themselves using earth's magnetic field, a new leading theory is that they do so through a form of quantum entanglement. In A World on the Wing, author and researcher Scott Weidensaul shares these and other revelations to convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, taking the reader from the shores and mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China, to the remote mountains of northeastern India, and to the salt lakes in southern Cyprus in the Mediterranean. Weidensaul also introduces those trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other rising challenges"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member japaul22
Excellent book that meshes the new information that scientists are discovering about the mysteries of bird migration with the environmental issues that are harming them. In the past 20 years, the study of bird migration has taken off, as technology has enabled scientists to fit birds with extremely
Show More
light weight geo-locators. Even with the advances in technology there are still so many questions about bird migration. But, there is also a lot of fascinating information coming out that will hopefully make humans care about how they are affecting the world these birds inhabit with us.

As I look through my kindle notes, I could write pages about all the things I learned. I was particularly fascinated by the way birds navigate, the way they prepare for migrations that are thousands of miles long, and the various routes they take. Weidensaul makes you really care about each bird he focuses on (probably about a dozen throughout the book). It helped me to also look up some pictures of the birds as I read about them.

And then he starts talking about all the ways the world is changing and making things more difficult for the birds such as the fragmentation of forests, changing weather patterns, farming practices, light pollution, and hunting practices. The good news is that solid information about bird migration, including global hot spots that many different species of birds all rely on, is helping conservationists convince people and governments to make changes to help birds. Of course, this is not always an easy road and is met with resistance in many places, but at least there is now the beginning of the information we need to even know what change needs to happen.

Some of my favorite birds that I learned about in this book were the spoon-billed sandpiper, the red knot, the godwit, frigatebirds, kirtland’s warblers, and swainson’s hawks. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in birds, nature, conservation, and/or environmental issues.

Original publication date: 2021
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: purchased for kindle
Why I read this: off the shelf
Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
I didn't get very far into this before I gave up. It was too much "what I did on my summer vacation" and not enough "here are some cool facts about birds."

In writing about science (or any expert topic) for a popular audience, it's really hard to get the right balance of science and narrative to
Show More
keep the information interesting, and different readers are going to have different preferences for how much personal narrative they want in their books about science. I generally just don't like a lot of personal narrative, so this book didn't work for me.
Show Less

Awards

LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Science & Technology — 2021)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Nonfiction — 2022)
Notable Books List (Nonfiction — 2022)

ISBN

0393608905 / 9780393608908

Similar in this library

Page: 1.4161 seconds