A History of Birdwatching in 100 Objects

by David Callahan, Dominic Mitchell (Editor)

This book looks at 100 items that have profoundly shaped how people watched, studied and engaged with the avian world. Each item contains around 500 words on a double-page spread and include an illustration of the object in question. The book includes the objects listed below as well as many more.The range of items is international and cross-cultural. Subjects

An Egyptian 'field guide' [early tomb decorations of birds, identifiable as species]
Ornithologiae libri tres : the first British bird guide [a 1676 publication that attempted to itemise all British birds known at the time]
The Dodo specimen held at the Horniman museum
Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus [the first-ever system of scientific names in 1758, and still the international standard today]
The shotgun
The book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White [1789]
HMS Beagle [the ship on which Darwin made his ground-breaking discoveries]
Aluminium bird rings [used to record movement and longevity of individuals and species]
along with many more modern innovations including walkie talkies, pagers, radio tags and apps.

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2013

Reviews

[Shyamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent idea of looking at the wide range of influences in bird study (rather than birdwatching as the title suggests which does not fit very well with something like a mass spectrometer or a PCR machine!). British-centric but well worth reading or at least browsing through for anyone interested in birds.

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a birdwatcher and this might have affected my opinion of this book. I do know a little bit of birdwatching and since this book was lying around, I had a go at it.
I usually like microhistory and I thought the concept of this book was quite appealing.
It was, however, that same concept that put me off. The interesting parts were rather shallow and way to short. The boring parts were, well, boring.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very British-centric ...

[Lauren Flesher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Focused more on U.K. birding. I would have come up with a very different list of objects. A bit of a dry read that solicits skimming.