Physics of Birds and Birding

Michael Hurben is uniquely qualified to guide the curious through the exotic habitat where physics and birding intersect. He earned his PhD in physics from Colorado State University in 1996 and has accumulated a life list exceeding 5,000 bird species – despite being legally blind. His career has included award-winning teaching at the college level and decades of cutting-edge, nanoscale engineering in the high-tech magnetic recording industry. He and his wife Claire live in Minnesota.

• Preface : Looking Up1. At the Feeder: Birds, Mathematics and Symmetry 2. In the Garden: Hummingbirds, Flowers and Forces 3. On the Open Seas: Length Scales, Migration and Molecules 4. In a City Park: Movement, Murmuration and Magnetism 5. By a Forest Pond: Impacts, Waves and Sounds 6. Under Night’s Cover: Hearing, Recording and Analyzing Birdsong 7. At the Lake: Sunlight, Reflection and Refraction 8. During a Big Day: Light, Matter and Feather Colors 9. In the Blind: Images, Eyes and Cameras 10. From a Great Distance: Lenses, Binoculars and Scopes 11. Under Extremes: Heat, Cold and Thermoregulation 12. Above the Earth: Wings, Lift and Flight Coda: Looking BackNotes Glossary Bibliography Index

Masterful... Few people could write a book on this subject and very, very few could do it anything like as well as this author.