First of all, I'd strongly recommend this book. It is well researched, simply beautifully illustrated and written in a way that's readable. The vibrant, almost "alive" illustration on the cover tells you the quality of the illustrations -all painstakingly hand crafted with attention to detail - further inside the book. Mr. Vishawamitra clearly loves his craft and the topic of animals in general. His other 2 books too are equally a pleasure to have - if for nothing else than the lovely illustrations and wealth of information they contain. I am priviledged to own not just this book but Mr Vishwamitra's wildlife paintings as well and can attest to the highest quality and vibrancy of these.

The content in this book has actually changed my life. Today when I look out my window and see the birds in our garden, I often find myself bringing to mind things I learned about birds from this book! It has deepened my relationship with this part of the animal kingdom and therefore with nature as a whole.

Enjoy your copy asap!

Book In Appreciation of Birds by Teju Vishwamitra is like a Readers Digest of an encyclopedia for Birds. His synopsis spans prehistoric (Terror Birds) to modern scientific AI identification. The author writes with passion in his easy-to-read discussions of each topic he covers: bird history, anatomy, behaviors, colors, protection, nesting and challenges from predators and humans. He will insert, "Sounds exciting? You bet!" I think my high school classes would have been more interesting with this book as a guide to exemplify subjects from history, physics, biology, chemistry, art, photography, math and computer science in a way that applies many concepts illustratively to a specific domain: birds. I'm decades past high school, but was intrigued by the variety of information. My favorite was chapter 9, related to behaviors, because it was packed with interesting tidbits (some birds sleep while flying??) as well as beautiful bird photos. On the downside, somewhere past halfway through the book, the editor must have gotten glassy eyed and careless about grammar, punctuation and spelling - that annoyed me. Teju's use of "Please refer to Figure..." is on every page as well. There can be many other ways to reference figures without repeating that phrase so often; also annoying. I'm not a bird fanatic but came away from this book having enjoyed the photographs, and now when I see those photographs I find myself thinking something such as, "Oh the Secretary Bird is a raptor", or "that's the fish that eats birds!" or some such trivia that I never knew before.