What Is a Bird? (Science of Living Things) [Paperback]

Bobbie Kalman (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up | Series: Science of Living Things

Introduces birds, describing some different types and discussing their physical characteristics, behaviors, and habitats.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Taken from Chapter 4: Feet facts Birds use their feet in many ways. Some use them to catch food. Others build nests with their feet. Many water birds have webbed feet for swimming. Most birds have four toes on each foot. Three toes face forward, and one faces backward. The heel is located above the toes. It looks like a backwards knee, but the bird's real knee is close to its body, under its feathers. --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Crabtree Publishing Company (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086505892X
• ISBN-13: 978-0865058927
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.5 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flawed exposition of evolution, June 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: What Is a Bird? (Science of Living Things) (Paperback)

This is such a good book with thorough, well illustrated and clearly written coverage of so many important concepts of bird biology, adaptation and natural history. It's well laid out and well illustrated with a mix of drawings and photos. I liked that it covered feathers and flying mechanics. But it has a fatal flaw in the paragraph on bird evolution. Commendable that they even mentioned evolution I guess, but they did so in such a way as to promote the confusion and misunderstanding of this important biology concept. Here's the paragraph: "Scientists believe that birds were reptiles millions of years ago. Some reptiles evolved, or changed, in order to survive. They grew flaps of skin between their front and hind legs and used these flaps to glide from tree to tree. In time, these flaps became feather-covered wings. It took millins of years, but these ancient reptiles learned to fly. They became birds." This is followed by a picture of a reptile climbing up a branch, gradually morphing into a bird that takes off to fly. There are several problems with this explanation--birds weren't reptiles millions of years ago--modern reptiles and birds have common ancient ancestors. Evolution happens at the level of a population, not an individual, so evolution is not change within an individual, it is change within the genetic makeup of a population. And the reptiles didn't "grow" flaps of skin between their front and hind legs, again, this happened over time through changes in the genetic makeup of the population when those individuals who had the flaps because they were born with them had a survival advantage and passed this trait on to their offspring. Lastly, the photo of the reptile morphing into a bird all taking place on the same branch give the impression that evolution is quick rather than taking thousands of years and thousands of generations. I don't know how I would describe this to an eight year old, but I wouldn't do it the way it was done in this book.