The Ascent of Birds

I have to say, I loved this book, and expect to be diving back into it from some time to come. It's an excellent and well-written resource on the evolution of modern birds, including the very latest information at the time it was written (2018).

I should, however, begin by pointing out what it isn't. In particular, it isn't an entire evolutionary history of birds. Archaeopteryx for instance, is only mentioned briefly and in passing. Rather, it deals only with the birds we have now, so that the story begins in the Late Cretaceous and primarily concerns what's colloquially known as the ‘Age of Mammals'. (Although, in fact, there are more recognised bird species alive today than species of mammal...)

Instead, what we get is a chapter-by-chapter discussion of the different groups of modern bird, moving along the family tree from ostriches at one end to tanagers at the other. Not every order of living bird gets a full treatment here, perhaps because we know relatively little about some of them, but the coverage is nonetheless about as broad as it reasonably could be. Along the way, we are introduced to a whole host of evolutionary principles, most of which apply equally to other animal groups, as well as recounting the advances made by particular scientific studies.

There's discussion of sexual selection, vicariance, hybridisation, the species problem, Pleistocene refugia, and much more. There's also a fair amount about specific aspects of bird biology, including the mechanisms of long-distance migration, the cognitive abilities of crows, and why most male birds don't have a penis. This could have been a dry read but, for me at least, it certainly wasn't and - as somebody more familiar with mammalian biology - there were a number of things that were entirely new to me.

Perhaps it's a specialist interest, a topic that particular appeals to me. This isn't a glossy, coffee table book (although there a few pages of colour photos in the middle) but it isn't highly academic, either, written largely for the lay reader and containing a comprehensive glossary at the end.