Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation

A sweeping and lyrical history of the relationship between birdlife and humankind over twelve millennia, exploring how birds have captured our imaginations and inspired our culture and our science.

In Birds and Us award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on an epic and dazzling journey through our mutual history with birds, from the ibises mummified and deified by Ancient Egyptians to Renaissance experiments on woodpecker anatomy, from Victorian obsessions with egg collecting to the present fight to save endangered species and restore their habitats.

Weaving in stories from his own life as a scientist, including far-flung expeditions to Neolithic caves in Spain and the guillemot colonies of the Faroe Islands, this ambitious book is the culmination of a lifetime’s research and unforgettably demonstrates how birds shaped us, and how we have shaped them.

Tim Birkhead is an award-winning author, scientist and university lecturer. He is a Professor of Zoology in the Department of Animal & Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield.