Hosted by Professor Sally Shortall, with introduction from Professor Melissa Bateson

Professor Birkhead provides a broad history of the relationship between birds and humans over 12 millennia. This lecture will explore everything from the birds deified and mummified by Ancient Egyptians to Renaissance studies of woodpecker anatomy; from the kleptomania and taxonomic obsessions of Victorian ornithologists through to the present-day fight to save endangered species.

Tim Birkhead's book, The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg, is available to buy now from our university bookseller Blackwell's.

Biography:

Tim Birkhead is a zoologist whose research focuses on populations of birds and their reproduction. He has made important contributions to the field of behavioural ecology — the study of how animal behaviour evolves under the influence of environmental pressures. Tim is the author of Bird Sense: What it’s Like to be a Bird (2012), a popular science book that discusses life as a bird and was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize for Science Books in 2013. His TED talk, The Early Birdwatchers, has received over 100,000 views.

Live Q&A:

The lecture will be followed by a live Q&A with the speaker. You can submit a question in advance by sending an email to public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk or during the event using YouTube Live Chat or via Twitter @InsightsNCL.

This event will be hosted on YouTube, registration is not required.