Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into The Mystery of Bird Song
Breathes there a human with soul so dead as never to have wondered why birds sing? Little did one know, however, that dozens, perhaps hundreds of scientists are poking around the edges of this question with their scalpels (literally) asking how birds sing, or where, when and to whom – but almost never why, which to them smacks of the pathetic fallacy, or of metaphysics.
David Rothenberg however, along with one or two eccentric precursors and the odd ornithologist or ethologist, does dare to ask the question openly and unabashedly. Because he is primarily a philosopher and musician, he wants to know why birdsong sounds like music to him, and why he is able (as evidenced by a companion CD) to play clarinet duets with various birds that sound like real music to everyone (except maybe fundamentalist behaviorists).
In search of answers he goes to Science, and generally comes away more-or-less unsatisfied, or at least resigned to a continuing state of negative capability and creative ambiguity. Along the way however he unearths reams of fascinating facts and tasty trivia on the subject. My favorite moment: a public radio debate between the author and a behaviorist bird scientist who tells him bird song is just a “business proposition” about who gets to mate or defend territory. "‘Nature,’ I responded, ‘is not a business.’"
Incidentally this is generally a very happy book. It seems that hanging around with birds does this to you.
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Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into The Mystery of Bird Song
David Rothenberg
Basic Books, 2005
ISBN 978-0465071364
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