10 NEW BEAUTIFUL BOOKS ON FEATHERS

The bluejays came back first -- just last week a couple landed on the deck just outside BN HQ. And yesterday, we saw two grey mourning doves making love while balanced a bit precariously on the fence railing. Spring is finally starting. and we’ve got Beautiful Feathers in our sights.

Today, we’ve gathered a flock of new beautiful books and one video devoted to the art, science, fashion, and general fabulousness of feathers.

1. FEATHERS NOT JUST FOR FLYING.

“Feathers: Not Just for Flying,” by Melissa Stewart is a lovely book featuring sixteen birds and their respective feathers.

The book feels like a scrapbook. The delicate, exquisite full-color, mainly life-size illustrations, by Sarah S. Brannen, appear to be taped, stapled or pinned to the pages.

Charlesbridge (2014)

2. THE MAGNIFICENT CHICKEN: PORTRAITS OF THE FAIREST FOWL

“The Magnificent Chicken: Portraits of the Fairest Fowl” is a spectacular book of photographs by Tamara Staples, celebrating a bird that most of us take for granted.

The book is a fully revised and expanded edition of the classic The Fairest Fowl, now retitled The Magnificent Chicken. The new book has even more chickens and information about them, so it is even better.

You’ll be wowed by the more than 40 astonishing breeds showcased in the book. These chickens are truly champions.

"The labor of love chronicles purebred fowls, championship chickens, and more than 40 eccentric breeds, blending lively text and brilliant and peculiar photographs by Tamara Staples, who has been following champion chickens since 1998."

-- Town&Country Magazine online

"Stunning photographic studies of all manner of domesticated fowl, from the more traditional breeds to the downright strange.... Although the photographs are the book's main attraction, one reason it's a keeper is the wonderful insight it provides into the strange, somewhat underground world of poultry showing."

-- Design Sponge

Chronicle Books (2013)

3. IMAGES TAKE FLIGHT: FEATHER ART IN MEXICO AND EUROPE

“Images Take Flight: Feather Art in Mexico and Europe,” edited by Gerhard Wolf, Alessandra Russo, and Diana Fane, is a beautiful catalog of feather mosaics created by artists in Mexico and Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Thirty-three scholars explore feather art from the perspectives of art history, anthropology, collecting, natural history, archeology, and conservation.

The book includes over three hundred color photographs of highly detailed, intricate feather mosaics, paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, books, European illuminated manuscripts, Meso-American codices, and studies of natural history.

Hirmer Publishers (2014)

4. THE THING WITH FEATHERS: THE SURPRISING LIVES OF BIRDS AND WHAT THEY REVEAL ABOUT BEING HUMAN

Who knew we had a lot in common with birds?

“The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human,” by Noah Strycker, is an intriguing exploration of our shared traits.

Humans and birds are both highly intelligent -- in many different ways and in some interestingly similar ways. Take the homing abilities of pigeons, the crowdsourced energy of a flock of starlings, the decorating talents of bowerbirds, the memories of nutcrackers, and the lifelong mutual devotion of albatross couples, among others.

“[Strycker] combines the latest in ornithological science with snippets of history and his own vast experience in the field to hatch a thoroughly entertaining examination of bird behavior… In Strycker’s absorbing survey, we find out how much fun it is simply to watch them.”

– Booklist, STARRED

“[Strycker’s] prose is difficult to stop reading.”

– Publishers Weekly

Riverhead Hardcover (2014)

5.  A FEATHERED RIVER ACROSS THE SKY: THE PASSENGER PIGEON’S FLIGHT TO EXTINCTION

“A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction,” by Joel Greenberg, examines the demise of passenger pigeons.

Here’s an astonishing fact: In the early 19th century, 25 to 40% of all of North America’s birds were passenger pigeons. Flocks were so large, they could virtually block out the sun. The numbered into the billions. And yet, in just 50 years, recreational hunting killed them off as a species.

The last living passenger pigeon, Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. Greenberg tells the story beautifully. Of course, it serves as a warning too. Just look at what we are doing to our oceans.

"Joel Greenberg has done prodigious research into the literature of the passenger pigeon and lays much of it out in this book. For that effort, all who care about the living world owe him a debt of gratitude."

—Wall Street Journal

Bloomsbury USA (2014)

6.  THE UNFEATHERED BIRD

“The Unfeathered Bird,” by Katrina van Grouw, is all about the bird beneath the feathers. It shows us what we normally don’t see. With over 385 stunning drawings depicting 200 species, The Unfeathered Bird is a visually driven  page-turner.

The artist studied real specimens to create the exquistely accurate drawings. The birds are shown in lifelike positions and behaviors, such as flying, swimming, hunting.

If you are into bird art, this book is a must for you.

"Unsettling and irresistible. . . . This is a coffee-table book, and compelling images are enough to sell such a volume, but The Unfeathered Bird delivers on the other promise of such books, not always fulfilled, that there should be something to read. . . . [I]f you love the natural world for its astonishments, for something as obvious but thrilling as the huge variety of shapes that birds and their parts have evolved, then The Unfeathered Bird won't disappoint."

--James Gorman, New York Times

Princeton University Press (2013)

7.  BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS: SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE TAKEN FROM THE WORKS OF JOHN BURROUGHS

“Bird Stories from Burroughs: Sketches of Bird Life taken from the Works of John Burroughs,” by naturalist John Burroughs, is a new classic. Dive into Burrough’s studies of North American bird species such as the crow, northern shrike, whip-poor-will, among many others.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2014)

8. BIRDS OF PARADISE: PLUMES & FEATHERS IN FASHION

“Birds of Paradise: Plumes & Feathers in Fashion,” looks at the incredible feather designs of Dior, Yves-Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and many others. It was curated and produced by an amazing group of fashion experts including:

• June Swann is chairman of the Costume Society and the Friends of Fashion, Museum of London.
• Kaat Debo is the director of the Antwerp Fashion Museum.
• Emmanuelle Dirix is a teacher at the Chelsea College of Art & Design, Central Saint Martin's, Royal College of Art and the Antwerp Fashion Academy.
• Joanne Marschner is senior curator of the State Apartments in Kensington Palace.
• Alistair O'Neill is a historian, specializing in fashion.
• Karen Van Godtsenhoven is curator at the Antwerp Fashion Museum.

 

Lannoo Publishers (July 30, 2014)

9. FEATHERS: THE EVOLUTION OF A NATURAL MIRACLE

Feathers date back more than 100 million years. Some dinosaurs sprouted them. And biologist Thor Hanson tells their long story beautifully.

“Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle,” by Thor Hanson, is not a recent release (2012) but it is such a wonderful book, we had to include it in our list today.

Hanson shows how they started as insignificant hairlike protrusions and developed to enable flight, provide insulation, attract mates, and offer other specialized functionalities, depending on species. And he looks at the cultural impact of feathers throughout history.

Basic Books (2012)

 

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-did-fea...

10.  HOW DID FEATHERS EVOLVE?

“How Did Feathers Evolve?” by Carl Zimmer is a wonderful little jewel of a biology lesson, brilliantly abbreviated and packed into a short TED lesson.

From feathers to wishbones, Carl Zimmer takes us tthrough a quick animated history of how dinosaurs became birds.

Lesson by Carl Zimmer, animation by Armella Leung.

Read more about Beautiful Feathers, it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.

And check out our list of the most Beautiful Books to give here.

Enter this week’s BN Creative Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Feathers. Deadline is 04.06.14.

PHOTO CREDITS: 

1. Image: Courtesy of Charlsbridge. Feathers: Not Just for Flying.
2. Image: Courtesy of Chronicle Books. The Magnificent Chicken.
3. Image: Courtesy of Hirmer Publishers. Images Take Flight.
4. Photo: Courtesy of Riverhead Hardcover. The Thing with Feathers.
5. Photo: Courtesy of Bloomsbury USA. A Feathered River Across the Sky.
6. Image: Courtesy of Princeton University Press. The Unfeathered Bird.
7. Image: Courtesy of CreateSpace. Bird Stories from Burroughs.
8. Image: Courtesy of Lannoo Publishers. Birds of Paradise.
9. Image: Courtesy of Basic Books. Feathers.