Long Hops: Making Sense of Bird Migration

Latitude 20 Book

By: Mark Denny

Narrated by: Sonny Dufault

In Long Hops, physicist Mark Denny explains, in a clear, conversational style, the science of bird migration - from the intricacies of bird aeronautics to the newly unraveled mysteries of their magnetic compasses. While providing wherever possible examples of indigenous Hawaiian species, the book surveys the migration phenomenon as a whole, showing that birds are breathtaking works of engineering with spectacular capabilities for long-distance flights. Each year thousands of these hardy migrants fly 2,500 miles nonstop from Alaska to Hawai'i. How do they endure such marathon journeys, and how on earth do they know which direction to travel over featureless ocean? In fact, many migratory journeys, in all parts of the world and performed by birds as small as warblers and as large as swans, cover much longer distances.

After answering the "who, why, where, when" questions, Denny focuses on the questions of how: how researchers study bird migration; how they gather data from old-fashioned bird banding, high-tech satellite tracking, and other techniques; and - above all - how the birds do it. Throughout the book, concepts such as the physics of bird flight and the role of physical geography on navigation are explained in a relatively math-free way.

The book is published by University of Hawai'i Press.

©2016 University of Hawai'i Press (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Probably the best book on Long Distance Birds

Without a doubt the best book on the subject of long distance bird migration and the science behind it. This book really makes you really think to yourself; who are these people who simply think that birds are just tiny and stupid little creatures? To think about it in a much more evolved and philosophical sense think on this:

When we us human beings try to say emulate any such tiny bird that travels 3000 miles, it takes us literally thousands of dollars in plane tickets, millions of dollars in capitol, and thousands of hours in human labor power and let's also face it hundreds of years of human scientific work, invention and much more....in order for any of us to come even close to imitating any such long hopping bird.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it kids....

A brilliant book, topic, author, and a great narrator. And some incredible work was put into the making of this book.

Monotone & Dull

I'm very interested in birds, especially bird migration. I have studied them and given talks on birds and bird migration so I'm super interested in the content of this book. Unfortunately I could not get through much of it because it is so monotone and dull. I tried many times to listen but found that it did not keep my attention. I think that it's mostly the narrator. If there were a more interesting voice with more inflection, perhaps it would be a better audio book. Would love to hear the information but just can't get through it.