Have you ever taken a really good look at the bottom half of a bird? At long last, this birding guide from esteemed birder and New Yorker cartoonist Tommy Siegel, author of Candy Hearts, reveals the truth about the powerful legs and shapely rear ends that power our feathered friends to the skies! 🦅
There’s a reason brilliant naturalists from Audubon to Sibley have relied on illustration to bring birds to life on the page: Birds move remarkably fast and are often obscured by foliage; it would be nearly impossible to photograph them. But birding enthusiast and comic artist Tommy Siegel noticed a theme in these artists’ guides: Their renderings focus too heavily on birds’ wings and plumage while reducing their lower limbs to simple sticks. Could birds really achieve such varied feats of athleticism and migratory endurance if they had such rudimentary legs?Â
Now, Tommy is poised to revolutionize the field of ornithology with his interpretation of how birds’ beautiful legs and posteriors must truly appear (based on educated scientific guesses gleaned from observing their behavior in the field). The result is Extremely Accurate Birds, perhaps the most anatomically precise collection of bird illustrations ever assembled. Pairing his trailblazing bird drawings with (actually accurate, for real) birding tips on more than eighty common species found across North America, Tommy has created an essential addition to any birder’s shelf.
✦ Hardcover, 208 pages.
