Flight Paths: How the mystery of bird migration was solved

(Hardback)

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For the past century, scientists and naturalists have been steadily unravelling the secrets of bird migration. How and why birds navigate the skies, traveling from continent to continent-flying thousands of miles across the earth each fall and spring-has continually fascinated the human imagination, but only recently have we been able to fully understand these amazing journeys. Although we know much more than ever before, even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher may not know how we got here, the ways that the full breadth of scientific disciplines have come together to reveal these annual avian travels.

Flight Paths is the never-before-told story of how a group of migration-obsessed scientists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries engaged nearly every branch of science to understand bird migration-from where and when they take off to their flight paths and behaviors, their destinations and the challenges they encounter getting there. Uniting curious minds from across generations, continents, and disciplines, bird enthusiast and science writer Rebecca Heisman traces the development of each technique used for tracking migratory birds, from the first attempts to mark individual birds to the cutting-edge technology that lets ornithologists trace where a bird has been, based on unique DNA markers. Along the way, she touches on the biggest technological breakthroughs of modern science and reveals the almost-forgotten stories of the scientists who harnessed these inventions in service of furthering our understanding of nature (and their personal obsession with birds).

Reviews

'It's amazing how much effort it has taken to understand that birds migrate and where to ... a fascinating account of discovery' - Frans de Waal

'Reads like a cross between a great detective story and riveting science fiction, except that the science here is all fact. Migratory birds span the globe through incredible feats of navigation and endurance, and the researchers who have uncovered their secrets are just as fascinating as the birds themselves' - Kenn Kaufman, author of the Kaufman Field Guide series


'Flight Paths is a delight, and the ground-breaking bird migration scientists whom Rebecca Heisman profiles in this fascinating book are a wonderfully unconventional lot. Heisman is the ideal guide to their world - curious, chatty, and adept at making sometimes complex research easily understandable' - Scott Weidensaul, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Living on the Wind and A World on the Wing


'Heisman sends you aloft on warbler wings for an unforgettable journey through the world of avian migration. You'll meet beguiling birds and the people who study them, and you'll learn how bird-tracking technology has improved so that once-hazy maps now click into focus. An enthralling trip that'll leave you feeling inspired and connected' - Rosemary Mosco, award-winning nature cartoonist, bird artist, and science book author

Author Bio

Rebecca Heisman is a science writer based in eastern Washington who loves nerding out about birds. Shes contributed to publications including Audubon Magazine, Sierra Magazine, Hakai Magazine, bioGraphic, Living Bird, and Bird Conservation. From 2015 to 2020, she worked for the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the worlds largest professional organization for bird scientists.