7 Quotes by Tim Birkhead

I am not going to speculate about the emotions that might be involved in avian infidelity.

Compared with mammals, birds have relatively large eyes. In simple terms, a bigger eye means better vision, and excellent vision is essential for avoiding collisions in flight, or for capturing fast-moving or camouflaged prey. Birds' eyes, however, are deceptive - they are bigger than they look.

The human eye has long fascinated lovers, artists and physicians. The ancient Greeks dissected eyes, but struggled to understand how they worked, unclear as to whether they received or emanated light.

There are several ways we can know what a dog, a bird or, indeed, any other organism can see, for example either by looking at the structure of the eye and comparing it with other species, or by behavioural tests.

Although we tend to think of the brain as a discrete organ - a lump of squidgy tissue - it is better to think of it as part of an elaborate network of nervous tissue that reaches out to every single part of the body.

Although we tend to think of the brain as a discrete organ – a lump of squidgy tissue – it is better to think of it as part of an elaborate network of nervous tissue that reaches out to every single part of the body.

When I mentioned to a friend I was writing a book about eggs he told me to be sure to mention how in Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” the young Arabella incubates a sky-blue egg of a song bird in the cleavage of her bosom... When I checked, I was disappointed to find it wasn’t a song thrush egg, but that of a chicken... The original image in my mind disintegrated like the sound of a vinyl record after the power has been turned off.