{"product_id":"9780143572817","title":"Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World","description":"Author: Low, Tim\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780143572817\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin Australia Pty Ltd\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 14 Aug 2017\u003cbr\u003ePages: 416 \u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe award-winning bestseller that put Australian birds on the world map  - nature and science writing at their best.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRenowned  for its unusual mammals, Australia is a land of birds that are just as  unusual, just as striking, a result of the continent's tens of millions  of years of isolation. Compared with birds elsewhere, ours are more  likely to be intelligent, aggressive and loud, to live in complex  societies, and are long-lived. They're also ecologically more powerful,  exerting more influences on forests than other birds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But unlike  the mammals, the birds did not keep to Australia; they spread around the  globe. Australia provided the world with its songbirds and parrots, the  most intelligent of all bird groups. It was thought in Darwin's time  that species generated in the Southern Hemisphere could not succeed in  the Northern, an idea that was proven wrong in respect of birds in the  1980s but not properly accepted by the world's scientists until 2004 -  because, says Tim Low, most ornithologists live in the Northern  Hemisphere. As a result, few Australians are aware of the ramifications,  something which prompted the writing of this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Tim Low has a  rare gift for illuminating complex ideas in highly readable prose, and  making of the whole a dynamic story. Here he brilliantly explains how  our birds came to be so extraordinary, including the large role played  by the foods they consume (birds, too, are what they eat), and by our  climate, soil, fire, and Australia's legacy as a part of Gondwana. The  story of its birds, it turns out, is inseparable from the story of  Australia itself, and one that continues to unfold, so much having  changed in the last decade about what we know of our ancient past. \u003ci\u003eWhere Song Began\u003c\/i\u003e also shines a light on New Guinea as a biological region of Australia,  as much a part of the continent as Tasmania. This is a work that goes  far beyond the birds themselves to explore the relationships between  Australia's birds and its people, and the ways in which scientific  prejudice have hindered our understanding.","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48150344695966,"sku":"UBD-9780143572817","price":26.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780143572817.jpg?v=1786964451","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780143572817","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}