Roger J. Lederer
Auteur de Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior
A propos de l'auteur
Œuvres de Roger J. Lederer
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Lederer, Roger J.
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Chico, California, USA
- Professions
- professor of biological sciences
- Organisations
- California State University, Chico
- Courte biographie
- [from California State University, Chico website]
Dr. Roger Lederer has traveled to more than 80 countries and you can be sure he knows the native birds in each one of them. He's spent more than 40 years studying and writing about birds.
The emeritus professor of biological sciences has been a department chair, associate dean of the Graduate Council, and dean of the College of Biological Sciences. His teaching has been on ornithology and ecology.
He received a Professional Achievement Award in 1981 and has written more than 30 research papers, a textbook "Ecology and Field Biology," and many books about birds. He contributed a column on bird watching for the Chico Enterprise-Record.
Dr. Lederer directed the Bidwell Environmental Institute, has managed the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, and chaired the local science fair board. He has been a naturalist for cruise Jines describing ecology, natural history, and geology for passengers and has been a consultant for the BBC, National Geographic, National Public Radio and other organizations and publications.
Membres
Critiques
(Note: I listened to this on audiobook and found the narrator to be subpar, this might have effected my experience)
"Beaks Bones and Bird Songs" is a book about avian survival that zooms in on what many people overlook: the extreme situations birds go through regularly just to live. We view birds as living carefree lives of freedom and grace, when in reality they are constantly on alert against the thousand things that could kill them.
This book was interesting for sure, and there are certain parts that will stick with me. But the further along I got, the harder it got to pay attention and keep myself invested. I'm somebody who's pretty obsessed with birds, and even I reached a point of "ok, we get it, they're really strong!"
The tone of writing is a bit dry, and the fresh perspective on this topic only lasts for a couple chapters. For me, the beginning of the book was the most interesting (there's one great passage in which the author describes the kind of athleticism required by birds that fly over a mountain range every year as they migrate, and spoiler alert, it's pretty darn athletic).
For somebody with an academic interest, this book helps add on to a foundation of knowledge on behavioral ornithology. For anybody else, it's not the kind of non-fiction book that can keep a casual reader entertained.… (plus d'informations)
"Beaks Bones and Bird Songs" is a book about avian survival that zooms in on what many people overlook: the extreme situations birds go through regularly just to live. We view birds as living carefree lives of freedom and grace, when in reality they are constantly on alert against the thousand things that could kill them.
This book was interesting for sure, and there are certain parts that will stick with me. But the further along I got, the harder it got to pay attention and keep myself invested. I'm somebody who's pretty obsessed with birds, and even I reached a point of "ok, we get it, they're really strong!"
The tone of writing is a bit dry, and the fresh perspective on this topic only lasts for a couple chapters. For me, the beginning of the book was the most interesting (there's one great passage in which the author describes the kind of athleticism required by birds that fly over a mountain range every year as they migrate, and spoiler alert, it's pretty darn athletic).
For somebody with an academic interest, this book helps add on to a foundation of knowledge on behavioral ornithology. For anybody else, it's not the kind of non-fiction book that can keep a casual reader entertained.… (plus d'informations)
Very informative but also very sad. Humans are such a detriment to all of the natural world.
Very interesting info about birds with regards to their 5 senses, location and habitats. Easy to read. Does not get bogged-down with scientific-speak, only when it is necessary. Lots of interesting facts and observations. I read this book in the summer while sitting out on my balcony as numerous birds surrounded me as they went about their daily lives. Such synchronicity!!
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 14
- Membres
- 306
- Popularité
- #76,934
- Évaluation
- 3.5
- Critiques
- 7
- ISBN
- 28
- Langues
- 6
The author, Roger Lederer, an ornithologist by training, has collected a rich array of bird illustrations and bird art, ranging from old woodcuts to modern paintings. I often deplore the lack of good images found in art books these days, but while occasionally uneven in quality, this is overall a very handsome book to page through. Lederer follows a roughly chronological order, placing the artists and their work in the context of the times and the intent of the work: documentary, scientific illustration, field guides, and purely aesthetic. Lederer seems to have selected primarily works in which you would be able to identify the species, depicted realistically (if not always entirely accurately), so folk art or more "symbolic" images are not here, and all the artists are European or American (there are a couple of women). You will have to get past several quite horrible tables full of dead, gutted animals and a nasty hunting scene by Rubens (I never did like Rubens...). But Fabritius's transcendent goldfinch gets a whole page to himself, there are some farmyards of histrionic poultry, and LOTS of parrots and peacocks, by artists famous (Audubon) and unfamous. My favorite part was discovering that the English poet Edward Lear ("There once was a man with a beard..." and The Owl and the Pussycat) was an absolutely brilliant painter of birds as a young man. His red and yellow macaw on p. 105 is nothing short of spectacular; his snowy owls are dramatically better than Audubon's. (I'm ordering a reproduction of his barn owl portrait for my own wall... wish I could afford even a plate from the original book it appeared in!) The book closes with a tribute to David Sibley, the current star of bird field guide illustrations - what a pleasure to see his paintings closer to their actual size as painted, and appreciate the delicate and sure-handed subtleties we can't see in the books we carry in our backpacks.
The editing of the text is odd, and I would have expected better from the U of Chicago Press. Passages of description are repeated verbatim in both illustration captions and the text. There are descriptions in the text of paintings not illustrated, and illustrations that are not discussed in the text. One discussion of a Malcom Cradock painting refers explicitly to birds that don't appear in the illustration... is the image a detail? I am still puzzling over the charming little painting of a blue-faced malkoha: Lederer remarks we can see it must have been a captive bird because of the damage to the tail feathers. At first glance, yes, the edges of the feathers look tattered, but a closer look shows the artist has sketched the fine edges that actually show that the feathers are edged in white - not damage, just white patches, but hard to see against the white background of the image. Did he really just miss that? As I Googled up some more information about various artists and birds, I also discovered passages that suggest Lederer did much the same in compiling his text - and the bibliography includes a fair number of citations to Wikipedia.
This is an attractive, enjoyable collection of lovely pictures and some interesting stories about birds and bird artists in Europe and American in the last four centuries or so. The blend of ornithological and art historical scholarship is not so successful.… (plus d'informations)