Customer Reviews

Between the Wingtips: The Secret Life of Birds

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is surely the ultimate in bird watchers books. Sure you can get bird catalogues, but this book has better information on why birds do things than I've ever read. And the photographs! Amazing! The shots are pin-sharp, the poses incredible and the photohrapher says he doesn't photoshop them... what a master... I'm buying 5 as Chrstmas gifts. I KNOW they will be loved. I bought Audubon's Birds of America, wish I had bought more of this book instead.

I LOVE this book. The incredible images drew me to it, the details about birds lives is the icing on the cake. I limit myself to 20 pages at a sitting, so I can savor the experience of being taken all over the world and into the habitat that these beautiful, amazing, intelligent creatures live in. Ostling has an extraordinary eye, and a great gift. I have never seen such a compilation of wonderful shots of birds in motion or still. I thank him for this. You will too. Astounding!

This is a stunning, beautifully photographed book. It offers a wide array of bird facts and information about many little known things that make you almost read the whole thing in one sitting. The photography is simply magnificent, so if you are a bird lover or know one, get this book. It is a stunning, fascinating read.

I bought this book for my wife as a birthday gift. We have three parrots and birds of all kinds make her world a great place; she simply adores birds.

At first glance we were excited by the imagery and beauty of the pictures... then we read some of the author's notes. I cannot recall the exact quote and the book is not with me as I write this, but for instance one shining example of how unbelievably ignorant Brutus Ostling is he talks about birds being "unfeeling" and "showing no emotions". He goes on about how they express no feelings of love or anything other than the instinct to breed, eat, sleep and die. I recall him saying 'unlike a dog, birds show no love.' What kind of *#($ is he smoking?

This made me angry and my wife almost hostile. Our cockatoo absolutely lights up the room when my wife returns home. Our quaker will bug us until we get frustrated then do something cute to disarm us and then laugh. Wife had a leg cramp that had her in tears and our quaker (who isn't a 'mean' bird but far from gentle) went to her and would peck her face as softly as possible like she was asking 'are you ok?'.

As a book of pictures, get this book. For education, run away. The thought of a child reading this as fact makes me worry about our world and how backwards and little-minded we can be as human beings.