NPR

Ever Wonder 'What It's Like To Be A Bird'? David Allen Sibley Has Some Answers

David Allen Sibley's name is synonymous with his bird field guides. In researching this volume, he became convinced of something new: Birds make complex decisions and experience emotions.
David Sibley's new book, <em>What It's Like To Be a Bird, </em>features illustrations paired with essays about what birds are up to, and why. Here is a Belted Kingfisher.

"A bird's experience is far richer, complex, and 'thoughtful' than I'd imagined."

This sentence on the first page of David Allen Sibley's What It's Like to Be a Bird is a stunner. A renowned author-illustrator of bird field guides, Sibley is a top bird expert. When he did research for this new volume, though, he became convinced of something he had not previously anticipated: Birds routinely make complex decisions and experience emotions.

"And if that was news to me after a lifetime of watching birds," Sibley writes, "it must be surprising to other people asis a feast for the mind and, thanks to Sibley's gorgeous illustrations, the eye.

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