Skip to main content

"Around the World in Eighty Birds" by Mike Unwin - a personal review




This blog is another addition to my  very occasionally series of bird book reviews, this time featuring the excellent “Around the World in 80 Birds” by Mike Unwin.  

So why excellent? Well its quite unique and very different to your average bird identification book of which there are many good publications and a few bad!

 

As the name suggests, the author takes us on an around the world tour of his favourite birds. What makes this book different is the rich and well written content focusing not just on a description of the bird but the human history, culture and tradition including local myths and current status.

 

I found the myths and legends around bird migration particularly fascinating including the now astounding belief that Swallows hibernated at the bottom of a pond! For instance did you know that the first clue as to the mystery of migrating birds annual disappearance occurred in the autumn of 1822 when a white Stork appeared in the north German town of Klutz with an African arrow in its neck. Amazingly another 25 storks, know in German as pfeilstorche or “arrow storks” have been documented! Perhaps their predilection for nesting alongside people is why the Stork has been long celebrated in culture whether as a mythical pilgrim to Mecca or the fabled deliverer of babies.

 

The chapter on Ravens shines light on its undeserved sinister reputation reflected everywhere from Shakespeare to horror movies . This apparently stems from its taste for carrion, particularly  battlefield corpses! Ever since it was built in the eleventh century the tower on London is said to collapse if its resident Ravens leave. During world war 2 Churchill was apparently so worried about this that he imported 6 captive Ravens to replace those lost in the Blitz.

 

Further afield the chapter on the Superb Bird of Paradise from Papua New Guinea,   a bird definitely on my bucket list,  told me that when european explorers first encountered their skins they were told by locals that these birds have no legs but float around the heavens living of dew before eventually falling to earth – a myth that persisted for more than 150 years!

 

The book is much enhanced by Ryuto Miyake’s beautiful drawings done in a traditional water colour style. I love his drawing of a Superb Bird of Paradise displaying to a female. When he encounters a potential mate he erects his breast shield which is a triangle of iridescent blue and fans his nape plumes in a perfect eclipse just like a jet black cape . He then bows his head making his face vanish being replaced by to bright glowing crown spots. All dressed up he then proceeds to do a bobbing dance while snaping his tail feathers like clicking fingers – shear magic.




 

For the addicted birder and non-birder alike this is a truly enchanting and captivating view into the lives and myths surrounding 80 wonderful birds. I  hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 


  Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!  

Comments

  1. Interesting book and sounds very different from the usual. I like the idea of illustrations rather than photographs.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Albert the Albatross

  What is more improbable -   a)     England’ football team    beating Germany in the knockout stages of a major competition   b)     Seeing an Albatross in England   Actually the answer is a) because it has not happened since 1966 rather than b) as Albert the Albatross, as he is affectionally known, has made a number of passing visits to the UK since 1967!   On Monday evening reports started to emerge of Albert associating with the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, almost one year after his    last brief visit to the same site. During the intervening period there have been a number of sightings of Albert across Europe, particularly from the Baltic Sea where he appears to have spent much of the last 12 months. In fact there were reports that he had been attacked and killed in the area by two eagles.    Reports of his death were clearly greatly exaggerated!   The Black-browed Albatross is circumpolar in the southern oceans but very rarely seen above the equator. If I t

The Hawfinches of the Forest of Dean

   Hawfinch - Forest of Dean, winter 2017 A highlight of my winter birding is my annual trip to the Forest of Dean to see Hawfinches. I was unable to go last year due to the post-Christmas lockdown so this year’s visit was even more richly anticipated than normal.   Parkend in the Forest of Dean is my usual chosen location for watching Hawfinches. Here the proven technique of using your car as a hide normally works well. I must also say that,  after a number of quite strenuous twitches recently, I was also looking forward to a much more leisurely birding session!   The story of Hawfinches in the UK is, to my mind at least, a fascinating one. It is what is known as an eruptive species meaning that it occasionally erupts from its traditional breeding grounds to invade on mass countries much further away. This is thought to be driven by a combination of breeding success and local crop failure resulting in not enough food to go around.    Records indicate that the Hawfinch was a very rare

Perseverance or sheer stupidly? – The Belted Kingfisher nailed at the 4th attempt!

         Belted Kingfisher I have had three failed attempts, or dips as birders call them, to see the Lancashire Belted Kingfisher over the last few weeks, including two harrowing encounters with the slope of death, see here .     So when the bird was relocated a few miles away from its original location in an altogether less challenging spot I was soon off on my 4 th  attempt to see this truly stunning mega rare vagrant from North America. We had friends from the village coming to dinner on Wednesday night so I really didn’t fancy a strength sapping silly o’clock departure.  I hence left home at 07:00 on Wednesday morning and heading north again up the car park previously known as the M6.   The Kingfisher had relocated close to Samlesbury at a place called Roach Bridge on the river Darwen. I arrived at 09:30, found a parking spot very close to the bridge, and set off along a muddy footpath towards the reported location. Disconcertingly, many birders were heading back to their cars alr