Book Review: Drawn from Paradise - The Natural History, Art, and Discovery of the Birds of Paradise

Sir David Attenborough is known to millions as the narrator and host of many beloved BBC nature programs, such as Planet Earth and Blue Planet.  His career in nature programming began as the host of ZooQuest, where he traveled the world for the London Zoo, documenting the collection of animals for the zoo.  One of his most remarkable trips was to the island of New Guinea, where he was in search of the bizarrely beautiful songbirds that Europeans had sought for centuries - the birds of paradise.  The family must have made an impression on him.  Several of the Attenborough programs that I've seen over the years have prominently featured the birds, and especially their striking courtship displays.

Attenborough teams up with artist Errol Fuller to give these incredible but mysterious birds their due in their book, Drawn from Paradise: The Natural History, Art and Discovery of the Birds of Paradise. It is perhaps the most comprehensive book on the birds that I have ever come across.  The book is divided into chapters by genus.  Each details the species in that genus (or closely related genera), how they survive in the wild, and their history with humans.  The later is a particularly fascinating subject, running the gamut from the native New Guineans who utilized the plumage of the birds in their traditional regalia to the European and Asian traders who were first presented with specimens that they couldn't comprehend, to the biologists who study the birds today.  

Drawn from Paradise makes a wonderful coffee table book.  It has several chapters of interesting text, outlining the story of how humans and New Guinea's most spectacular birds have interacted over the centuries in a variety of ways.  For most readers, however, the real attraction will be the illustrations.  This is a large book, which allows for large, detailed illustrations - life-size, in some cases - of the birds, allowing the reader to truly appreciate the radiant colors, bizarre feather formations, and striking poses of the courting birds.  I think it fair to say that most people who buy this book would be most interested in the artwork, though the text is also fascinating. 

Only a handful of bird of paradise species are represented in zoos and aviaries (the Raggiana bird of paradise is the species that I see most often), and visitors only rarely get to witness the spectacular breeding displays.  For that reason, I'd always enjoyed TV specials such as Planet Earth that allow everyone to see these incredible behaviors.  Somehow, devoid of sound or motion, Fuller's illustrations prove to be equally evocative.  Maybe it's because, in an age of photography and video, they just look and feel so... old.  It's easy to hold this book and page through it and imagine that you're in the 1800's, looking at some fresh prints of birds from the other end of the world and seeing them for the first time.

Drawn from Paradise: The Natural History, Art and Discovery of the Birds of Paradise on Amazon.com