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A fascinating investigation into the miraculous world of birds and the powerful--and surprising--ways they enrich our lives and sustain the planet Our relationship to birds is different from our relationship to other wild creatures. We love to watch them, listen to them, keep them as pets, wear their feathers, even converse with them. Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, clothing and feeding ourselves, and providing medical treatments. And they even have much to teach us about being human. This book illuminates qualities unique to birds that demonstrate just how invaluable they are to humankind--both ecologically and spiritually. The wings of turkey buzzards influenced the Wright brothers' flight design; the chickadee's song is considered by scientists to be the most sophisticated language in the animal world and a "window into the evolution of our own language and our society"; and the quietly powerful presence of eagles in the disadvantaged neighborhood of Anacostia, D.C., proved to be the most effective method for rehabilitating the troubled teenagers placed in charge of their care. Exploring both cutting-edge scientific research and our oldest cultural beliefs, Robbins moves these astonishing creatures from the background of our lives to the foreground, from the quotidian to the miraculous, showing us that we must fight to save the imperiled bird population, for the sake of both the planet and humankind. Advance praise for The Wonder of Birds "The Wonder of Birds provides a great and well-timed gift: a portrait of the quiet miracles around us each day of our ordinary lives. By sharing his perspective and insights, [Jim] Robbins reminds us to slow down and to appreciate--and ultimately, to protect--a natural world that is essential for both our physical and spiritual well-being."--Michael Punke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant and Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West "A peregrine falcon and a loggerhead shrike, my flying friends, came into the garden the day The Wonder of Birds arrived. I'm surprised they didn't fly away with it . . . this exciting book of nature."--Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of The Global Forest