BOOKS
Created: 30th June, 2023

What it's Like to be a Bird

Author: Tim Birkhead
Illustrator: Catherine Rayner
Publisher: Bloomsbury

The first book for children by ornithologist Tim Birkhead, author of The Wisdom of Birds and Bird Sense.

This engaging and poetic book enables readers to step into the shoes (or clawed feet) of twenty individual bird species, and experience their unique behaviours up close and personal: what they eat, how they communicate, how their senses enable them to navigate their worlds, and much more. 

Each spread is dedicated to one bird, with full-colour painted illustrations by Catherine Rayner, and uses a combination of full paragraphs, short factual asides, and occasional onomatopoeia, such as the "TAP! tap! TAP! tap! TAP!" of a woodpecker, to impart information.

The lives of birds are made to feel relatable and familiar, without ever relying too heavily on anthropomorphism. 

 

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