the thing with feathers by noah strycker

I say “full-time bird nerd.”īrendan Francis Newnam: Let’s start with albatrosses. Noah Strycker: Yes, that is how I reply when people ask me what I do. Noah you are truly, as you say in the book, a bird nerd. He has spotted 2,500 birds on 6 continents - that’s one fifth of all the world’s species - and he’s only 26. He is associate editor of Birding Magazine and a frequent contributor to other bird-related publications. Today our subject is birds, and our expert is Noah Strycker. This is the part of the show where we get schooled in a party-worthy party topic.

The naturalist, artist, and journalist has explored the world – including extended stints with penguins in Antarctica – studying and documenting birds.Īs he explains to Brendan, his new book, “ The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human,” expands our view from simply observing creatures, to sharing what they can teach us about nature, intelligence, memory, and other important themes.īrendan Francis Newnam: It’s time for chattering class. You’ve never read a book about birds like this one.“ Noah Strycker: Birder at Large” is a pretty cool business card, but it only hints at the extent of Strycker’s avian adventures. With humor, style, and grace, he shows how our view of the world is often, and remarkably, through the experience of birds. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, the lifelong loves of albatrosses, and other mysteries-revealing why birds do what they do, and offering a glimpse into our own nature.ĭrawing deep from personal experience, cutting-edge science, and colorful history, Noah Strycker spins captivating stories about the birds in our midst and shares the startlingly intimate coexistence of birds and humans. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. Synopsis: ' thinks like a biologist but writes like a poet.' - Wall Street JournalĪn entertaining and profound look at the lives of birds, illuminating their surprising world-and deep connection with humanity.īirds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood.

The thing with feathers by noah strycker