A review by travelsalongmybookshelf
Taking Flight: The Epic Story of Life on the Wing by Lev Parikian

informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This book is simply mesmerising. It is an evolutionary history of life on the wing. When you actually stop and think about it flight is mind boggling. Birds, insects, butterflies, bats; they all do it with ease, flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. It’s a bit of a miracle really and has evolved in hugely varied ways.

Within its pages, we encounter fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds, to the dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. And my favourite, the pigeon.

This is hugely detailed, accessible and written with Parikian’s easy style that makes you smile, he is just so enthusiastic! I have been out and looking up far more at all the flying animals big and small and just  glorying in the wonder of it. Flight, is amazing.