Around the World in 80 Birds

Product Information

This is a wonderful book to add to the collection of anyone interested in either or both birds and avian art. It's educational without feeling teach-y, and just incredibly gorgeous overall. Recommended. Organized by region: Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and Pacific islands. Gorgeous book. Limited to 80 birds but not limited in its appeal. Beautifully illustrated by Ryuto Miyake. The birds aren't chosen just for their visual appeal. They are selected to point out the many ways people have seen birds. Some are related to mythology, as the little owl is an emblem of Athena, patron goddess of Athens, Greece. Some are national symbols. The tiny Tororoi bailador was chosen to represent Colombia as a newly discovered species, to showcase the great variety of birds resident in that country. Some are not threatened, others are in danger, mostly through habitat loss to human activity. The writing gives a lot of interesting information on the history of the birds and how people relate to them.

The book, like the other I've read only last month, is divided into 7 chapters that take the reader from continent to continent:

All Of It

A couple of the birds I enjoyed reading about the most are both extremely strange little beasts. The Resplendent Quatzal is such a beautifully colourful bird linked with a lot of South American mythology and I’ve always been fascinated by it. The other is the Crested Caracara which we were told is really intelligent and curious, but has become a pest in certain areas of Central America, raiding houses by going down chimneys and opening doors and windows. Maar Een reis om de wereld slaat me met verstomming: wat een kleuren, wat een variatie, hoe indrukwekkend mooi en boeiend. Van de meeste van de vogelsoorten heb ik nog nooit gehoord: rode rotshaan, vlaggendrongo, dwergmierpitta,… Andere ken ik wel maar in een lokale versie: Indische gans, groene gaai, grote renkoekoek,… Ik leer zo veel bij. And of all birds’ accomplishments, it is their flight that has most impressed us. Take China’s Bar-headed Goose, whose annual migration takes it over the Himalayas. Or our own Common Swift, which can feed, mate, drink and sleep on the wing, and remain airborne for a year at a time. Our admiration for birds’ flying skills acquired a particular poignancy during the pandemic, when – confined to our homes – we could only gaze in awe and envy at the countless feathered travellers that continued on their airborne journeys around the globe. Desgraciadamente, no somos conscientes de su importancia, y del enorme valor vital que tienen, y ni mucho menos de los peligros a los que están sometidos, y la amenaza que suponemos nosotros para ellos.

The writing style in this wasn't as quirky and entertianing as in the one about trees, but it was still delivering the facts in a very amicable and non-boring way. That’s not to say the book itself isn’t good - it’s fantastic and has a ton of good information on in unique bird species. I do wonder how the author narrowed down his choices - some are VERY unique so you can understand why, while others sometimes are a little head scratching. They can sing the most beautiful songs, shriek the eeriest cries, create the most stunning nests, dance the funniest mating dances and so much more! They can also be toxic, fiercely loyal and/or incredibly smart.It's an attractive book just for the pictures but it also provides a great deal of information regarding the variety of birds that share our planet - from the flyers to the swimmers to the runners. All are unique and all have their niche that - in many cases - deforestation and chemical pollution is destroying. La verdad que cuando te adentras el él, te das cuenta de que es mucho más sofisticado y fascinante de lo que pueda parecer. Yo he podido conocerlo un poquito mejor, gracias a “La vuelta al mundo en 80 aves”, un precioso libro que he ido leyendo a ratitos, y que de una manera muy atractiva y entretenida, hace un recorrido por 80 especies de aves de todos los rincones del planeta; desde el tejedor de Namibia, que construye bloques de apartamentos en medio del desierto, hasta el ánsar indio de China, un ave migratoria que atraviesa el Himalaya dos veces al año. I also found that I wanted more of a consistent structure for each entry - ie. only some include information on if they’re endangered or vulnerable (or doing well), when the intro makes it seem like that’ll be key in the entries; meanwhile others talk of the social and cultural aspects of the birds (being added to flags, taken on as national emblems, etc) but others are just straightforward facts about the bird itself. If you use 'AND' between two words, then both of those words will be present in the search results.

Na Een reis om de wereld in 80 planten en Een reis om de wereld in 80 bomen is er nu een boek over vogels. Weliswaar door een andere schrijver en een nieuwe tekenaar maar even indrukwekkend als zijn voorgangers. Genuinely unsure how I've become some sort of go-to reviewer for books about birds, but I 100% love it, especially when it brings gorgeous, informative books like these into my inbox!Here are the entries and illustrations for some of my favorite brids from around the world that were featured in this book:

ex: Harry OR Potter will return results with just 'Harry', results with just 'Potter' and results with both 'Harry' and 'Potter'. We get a nice overview of what the birds look like, their way of life and brief anecdotes of what they are known for (like them being national emblems and why, if they are featured in important literary works, legends or myths etc). To my delight, we also get a lot of quirky information. A really beautiful book with some great tidbits and facts about 80 different birds from around the world. The art in this book - by Arturo Miyake - is something else and, to me, one of the biggest highlights. Small chapters make this series a perfect bedside book, dipping into at night for a relaxing read, though it never really works like that as I again devoured this whole book in one sitting. I really enjoyed the expansive variety of birds chosen here, with each entry bringing up fascinating new information about its subject, even when said subject was something I thought I already knew quite a bit of popular information about. From the bald eagle of Northern America to the jungle fowl of Southeast Asia, Mr Unwin always has something interesting to share regarding birds I thought was already well familiar with. And the entries on birds that were very much unfamiliar to me were absolute cornucopias of information. I'd never heard of the oilbird or the purple-crested turaco before but my world is much the richer for having learned about them here.

Another entry in the Around the World in 80 ... series. This time, we look at the most iconic or memorable birds of the world. From Madagascar and the helmet vanga to the Galapagos Islands and the courtship rituals of the male blue-footed booby (think dad dancing, but with big, blue, webbed feet), Unwin introduces a dazzling array of our feathered friends. I'm very taken with Australia's southern cassowary, a 'living dinosaur', weighing 154lb and not to be trifled with. Ryuto Miyake's illustrations bring it all alive Fabulous illustrations by Ryuto Miyake made this a book that anyone enjoy just for the 'pretty pictures'. But it so much more.