Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World

An authoritative and entertaining exploration of Australia s distinctive birds and their unheralded role in global evolution

Renowned for its gallery of unusual mammals, Australia is also a land of extraordinary birds. But unlike the mammals, the birds of Australia flew beyond the continent s boundaries and around the globe many millions of years ago. This eye-opening book tells the dynamic but little-known story of how Australia provided the world with songbirds and parrots, among other bird groups, why Australian birds wield surprising ecological power, how Australia became a major evolutionary center, and why scientific biases have hindered recognition of these discoveries.

From violent, swooping magpies to tool-making cockatoos, Australia s birds are strikingly different from birds of other lands often more intelligent and aggressive, often larger and longer-lived. Tim Low, a renowned biologist with a rare storytelling gift, here presents the amazing evolutionary history of Australia s birds. The story of the birds, it turns out, is inseparable from the story of the continent itself and also the people who inhabit it.