Feathers are quite an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. Their story begins in the Jurassic and leads through the development of flight to high fashion. This title tells a natural history of feathers, as they've been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place.
Reviews
Robert Michael Pyle, author of "Wintergreen" and "Mariposa Road """Feathers" is simply a splendid book! Even for one biased toward butterfly scales, their closest competitors in the animal raiment line, feathers in all their glory can only be seen as astonishing. With elegance and wit, Thor Hanson captures not only their awesome esthetics, but also the astonishing evolution, historical and cultural impact, and sheer wonder of avian plumage. Rendered in exquisite detail with delicate touch, like a feather-painting of old, this is the best kind of natural history--quilled by a real field biologist who is also a fine writer."" "Bernd Heinrich, Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Vermont; author of" Winter World" and "Mind of the Raven ""Feathers are truly remarkable. In this book Hanson shows how they are the key to many of the most fascinating and diverse aspects of bird biology, how they have affected our understanding of evolution, and how they have and are enrichi
Author description
Thor Hanson works as a conservation biologist and has studied Central American trees and songbirds, nest predation in Tanzania, and the grisly feeding habits of African vultures. He is a Switzer Environmental Fellow, a member of the Human Ecosystems Study Group, and a peer reviewer for nine different scientific journals. In the 1990s, he served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda, where he helped establish the mountain gorilla tourism program in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Hanson's writing has appeared in both popular and scientific publications. His first book, The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda, won the 2008 USA Book News Award for nature writing. Hanson lives with his wife on an island in Washington State.
