Intro 0:05
What can you do with your love of science, we'll tell you?
Fatu Badiane Markey 0:31
Hello everyone and welcome back to the show, We Love Science! My name is Fatu.
Shekerah Primus 0:35
My name is Shekerah, and today we're talking science books.
Fatu Badiane Markey 0:40
Yes, we are! And I'll just put this out there as a disclaimer, I'm not a big reader. Honestly, Shekerah, like I can't even tell you the last time I think I read a full book, but I really enjoyed reading this book called Crazy for Birds by Misha Maynerick Blaise. And I'm really looking forward to talking with you about it.
Shekerah Primus 1:00
No disclaimer needed, girl. We both read lots of books in our lives. For my part, I prefer listening to books actually, rather than reading so maybe I'm kind in the same boat as you are.
Fatu Badiane Markey 1:17
I like that. I like that
So before we get started though, how are you doing Shekerah?
Shekerah Primus 1:24
I am doing really well. It is hot outside but thank God for AC. And I'm having some really delicious carrot cake.
Fatu Badiane Markey 1:36
Does your carrot cake have raisins? I'm going to interrogate you on this a little bit.
Shekerah Primus 1:40
My carrot cake does have raisins. Yes. It has raisins. And what are these nuts? Are they peacans or walnuts. What does carrot cake have? I'm not really sure. It has some yummy nuts in it. I feel like they are pecans.
Fatu Badiane Markey 2:08
I think in there you can probably put whatever nut you wanted.
Shekerah Primus 2:12
I know, I know. But you know me I'm the eater not the cooker, so. Yeah it has yummy stuff in here, it's really good
Fatu Badiane Markey 2:20
I really like that.
Although I have had carrot cake that has had pineapple instead of raisins. And that is the bomb dot com . I think chocolate chip would also be a worthy substitute.
Yes. all of it all of it.
Yeah, I am doing pretty good. It is summer. My birthday is this week, so I'm very happy.
Happy Birthday, Fatu!
Thank you! So I have some shenanigans planned for the rest of the week. And I think I'll have a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to that. So do you like birds Shekerah? Have you ever gone birdwatching? Do you have a favorite bird?
Shekerah Primus 3:01
I have never gone bird watching. I like birds in theory. Only because I haven't ever really tried to find out more about birds. But I do find them very interesting. And I like looking at them and I always take pictures of them when I go like hiking and I see them out in nature. I love taking pictures of them; in my room right now there is this like red bird that's flying outside my window. I don't know what kind it is. But I have at least five pictures of it already.
I love it, it just flies right up to my window and just like sits right off the ledge, and does this little head thing and stares at me. And you're going to teach us all about birds today!
Fatu Badiane Markey 3:48
I will! I myself am also not a bird watcher or a birder or like a bird fanatic. But kind of like you I do like to see them when they see them. You know just like being happy and hopping around in the backyard. I love watching birds fly. Because I just feel like, to me, it just seems like so magestic how they do it. You know especially when they get like an uplift of wind and they're kind of just like soaring there the air and I imagine that they feel very happy when they it. But maybe for them they're just like this is normal, so they don't feel anything at all.
Shekerah Primus 4:23
Or maybe its work, Fatu. So maybe like they're like oh my God, I got to eat some food so I can fuel this flying I got to do later.
Fatu Badiane Markey 4:30
That's true. That's true. There would be some like hungry vibes in there. I would say I think my favorite bird is probably the flamingo because they seem like a fun bunch; they are like pink and you know hanging out and all that stuff and they do that thing where they stand on one leg. So they just seem pretty cool. And from the book, I learned that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance, and I just can not get over it. I just love it. So let's get into it. Where should we start Shekerah?
Shekerah Primus 5:07
Where did you find this book?
Fatu Badiane Markey 5:11
I was honestly; it's such a funny story. I left my headphones for my phone at home and I was on the train commuting. And I was like oh my gosh, I you know I'm bored out of my mind. I don't have anything to do. So I literally walked by a bookstore and they had all these beautiful stalls of books outside; now mind you I'm not a reader, right? So I'll just grab like one easy thing to read and the illustrations in this book are just like gorgeous. So the cover is like bright and blue and colorful and I just looked at it and was like oh this is like fun. So I grab that and like five other books out of just pure craziness. And I bought them so I would have something to do on my commute. And I really enjoyed reading it. Yeah, it was a really pleasant surprise, you know, literally going from just like let me just have something to do to be like oh, I really like this. Was really nice.
Shekerah Primus 6:05
Very cool little story there. I guess, maybe not forgetful. Well I guess forgetful does play a part, a little word adventurous
Fatu Badiane Markey 6:21
Yeah, I was gonna say adventurous, but
I feel like buying a book is not really an adventure, right?
Shekerah Primus 6:26
Spontaneous, that's what I wanted to say.
Yeah, you're being spontaneous and you just buy a book when you're not really a book reader, right? Like, you're not the type of person who would just go to the bookstore and buy books. I'd probably go buy headphones. I would buy headphones so I can go listen to my book on my phone.
Fatu Badiane Markey 6:52
I have been through so many situations where I have lost the headphones, left the headphones, bought new ones. I was just like, I cannot continue with this trend. I was just like you know what, a book it is. I also like it because I'm trying to be really mindful with how much screen time I have. So you know, I'm also just like even though I'm not staring at my phone when I listen to a podcast or whatever. I'm also just trying to think of okay like you know, I don't want to, I love tech, you know, but I am on my phone a lot and on my screen all day, you know for work so what can I do to kind of give my eyes a break and yeah, a book just popped to mind. Yeah, you're totally right.
Shekerah Primus 7:30
I don't know if a book gives your eyes a break honey.
Fatu Badiane Markey 7:33
It gives my eyes a break in a differen't sense.
Shekerah Primus 7:37
Maybe listen to some music if you want to give your eyes a break. But we're totally off topic now. I was gonna say, I like that little story on how you just found that book by chance.
Fatu Badiane Markey 7:55
But before we start talking about the birds
Shekerah Primus 7:58
And the book, can you tell me or do you know anything about this author? Misha Maynerick Blaise.
Fatu Badiane Markey 8:06
So I didn't know anything about her before the book. But I'm actually interested in looking at more of her work. So her full name at least as how she writes it is Misha Maynerick Blaise and she is a Croatian American; she's born in Canada, raised in the Colorado Rockies. And she and her husband own a green building company which is really interesting. She has two sons, and they currently live in West Arkansas. She has illustrated; so she's an author illustrator. And you know, given the amount of just like art that's in this book, I think that's probably kind of like I guess like her signature you could say. So other books that she's written include My Wonderous Cloud Odyssey, and This is Texas Y'all. She also has a book called This Phenomenonal Life. And that's been translated into six languages. It was a best seller in China, which is pretty cool. I think she even went on a tour there to promote the book. Yeah.
Shekerah Primus 9:10
Have you looked at any other books?
Fatu Badiane Markey 9:12
I've looked at them in terms of like, let me look at the covers and see what they look like. So they all look really lovely. So I definitely think I'm going to add her other books to my list and see if I can find them.
Shekerah Primus 9:25
Yeah, sounds very like happy reads all of them--My Wonderous Claud Odyssey
Fatu Badiane Markey 9:32
I wonder if that one is about like clouds and weather. You know, I think that can be really interesting.
Shekerah Primus 9:40
So what is Crazy for Birds about besides the obvious?
Fatu Badiane Markey 9:46
So yeah, so obviously birds. And you know, it's a really easy to read book and really beautifully illustrated and then sort of broken up into seven different sections that cover I guess you could say kind of like what birds do, how do they adapt, what's their deal? You know, and kind of going into maybe like I would say like, the very basic like so zoology or biology of birds. So it covers things like eggs, and breeding feathers, flight, which makes sense, birds in love, nest building, songs and like how birds communicate, and also how birds have adapted to different environments. So like I said, you know, it's I think it's something that could be enjoyed by both adults and even school aged children. Each page covers a different species of bird or sometimes even several. So you know, even just reading a few pages. I feel like you just get a lot of information but it's like nuggets of information. You know, and there's always something really cool about each of the birds that are featured. And like for me, I think being like super visual, and I'm sure like you are in a sense too you know, it really reminded me of like, having scientific paper, and having great figures, you know that you can just dive into so that really pulls you in. And I really enjoyed that part of it. I think the most.
Shekerah Primus 11:13
Yeah, yeah. So is she
Does she science background or she just a bird enthusiast?
Fatu Badiane Markey 11:20
Yeah, that's a really good question. I have no clue what her background is other than being an author illustrator. I didn't see anything on her website to suggest that maybe she had like some biology background or something. But that'd be really interesting, especially if a lot of her books are kind of like science, you know, like, focused. I think that could be really cool.
Shekerah Primus 11:43
So, was there anything that surprised you about birds when you read that book?
Fatu Badiane Markey 11:49
Yeah. I mean, I read a lot of new things. I also, you know, kind of like you I just see birds and I'm like, Oh, they're cute and they're happy. You know, but I feel like like regular life. I've also always been really fascinated by how birds build nests, you know, because we can build this really amazing structures and they don't have like hammers, you know, and nails and stuff right? They just have their beaks and their feet. And according to the book, many birds build nests. And this is primarily just for the breeding season, so they don't live in them right. It's just like I need a place to put my egg and incubate it and then the chicks hatch. You know? Yeah, we raise them to whatever age and then we go on with our lives. They can also use like really ingenious materials. So it's not always just like sticks and twigs, which I feel is like what we see a lot of kind of like in the northeast, you know, when I think about birds that I see you know, around,
Shekerah Primus 12:47
Really not just sticks and twigs. Okay can you give examples of these birds and how they're building these nests and what they're using.
Fatu Badiane Markey 12:57
So they have a bird called the sooty-capped hermit, and they use a spider silk to make its nest and I guess it probably steals it or whatever from spiders. It builds these beautiful structures. And then bald eagles, which we have a lot of, you know, in the northeast, they built some of the biggest nests. And I didn't realize they get this big. I feel like they're pretty prominent even when you see them just from the ground, but their nests can be up to six feet in diameter, and they can weigh up to two ton. So I don't even know how this thing's like staying in the tree. You know, it's like nuts. And then you have social birds like cliff swallows, and they live in basically like little communities of nests and then they can be as large as like 3000 birds which is like crazy. But then I guess like the flip side of that is you have a bird called the white tern. And that doesn't build a nest at all; it just kind of like balances its egg somewhere on like a branch or a rock and it's like that's good enough. In my mind I'm like has someone studied how safe this is? This bird is just like balancing an egg, and is like this will work. What is the success rate of this?
Shekerah Primus 14:14
I feel like the white tern is taking DIY to the next level. Like DIY, I'm not building a nest for you, you learn how to survive this on like this branch.
Fatu Badiane Markey 14:29
Yeah. Really crazy, but also really cool. Something else that I really liked about the book is that like I mentioned, you know, it just have really digestible nuggets of information. So if you want to know more about a specific bird or behavior, you know, you can easily go and do like a deeper dive and read like all the research and all the whatever's but you know, it's more than enough to also just get enough sort of like tangible information to make you appreciate our little feathered friends that are out there. She also has some jokes you know, every once in a while which makes it a fun read.
Shekerah Primus 15:14
That's so cool. And it does sound like a pretty entertaining little read for a train ride.
Fatu Badiane Markey 15:20
It does. It does. And I'm proud of myself because I finished it in like two train rides. It's like, I don't think it's like 100 pages, it's probably a little bit less. But with regards to like jokes, there's a section on bird songs where she explains how birds of the same species can have various accents, depending on where they are from. And they're just like cute little like image that she has of a red breasted chat. And it's like saying like I speak spanglish, which I think is so cute. It's in an area where you know there's a mix of two different bird songs and so its developed it's own little accent. So she has like cute little things like that throughout.
Shekerah Primus 16:03
Wow! That is so interesting!
Birds have accents! I love that. I need to look into the research in that. And how do the accents affect the birds songs? And attracting a mate? And all that type of thing.
Fatu Badiane Markey 16:21
I think we need to find a bird scientists now. Right?
Shekerah Primus 16:27
Cool. So it sounds like you enjoyed it. Would you recommend this book for others to read?
Fatu Badiane Markey 16:32
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it not only covers birds, and they're interesting traits and adaptations, but there are also sections that I think really relate directly to how we as humans have become obsessed with birds and kind of have to show the impact of like birds on culture specifically. So Misha goes on in one section to explain how like indigenous and Aboriginal people all over the world have placed like great significance on feathers. So you know, she goes over different types of headdresses that are worn by indigenous tribes, peoples, and so a couple examples that she gives her like the enkuraru, which is a headdress made of ostrich feathers, that is worn by male Masai warriors, during Rite of Passage Ceremonies. And then you also have the war bonnet which I think is something that we see, I guess, like very often, and in some ways very stereotypically in the US, as associated with Native Americans. And that's a head dress made out of eagle feathers, and is worn by Native Americans in the great plains. And it's reserved, you know, for males of like a certain status or stature within that society.
Shekerah Primus 17:45
Yeah, very cool. I bet they have a lot of rituals surrounding even making these very intricate head dresses. Like even how they harvest the feathers from the birds; is it in a way that respects nature and preserves the bird, or do they sacrifice the bird. I would really love to know more about the different rituals surrounding making these head dresses. Very, very cool.
Fatu Badiane Markey 18:14
So I didn't give away too many spoilers, you know, I only covered maybe like 5% of the content. So listeners out there, if you're curious pick it up at your local bookstore, Crazy for Birds by Misha Maynerick Blaise.
Shekerah Primus 18:26
We should get Misha on. I wanna reach out to her.
Fatu Badiane Markey 18:33
I don't know how easy that is, but you know it doesn't hurt right? Misha if you're listening!
Shekerah Primus 18:37
She'll be like I write and a draw and I illustate I do not talk on podcasts.
Fatu Badiane Markey 18:44
I know right, she'll be like deep in the work
Shekerah Primus 18:48
I'll send you guys a picture, how about that.
I really love this little bird topic. Thank you so much for doing a book review for us and teaching me about birds. Thank you everyone for joining us for today's bird book review. If you come across any other good science books about birds or about other scientific topics. Let us know.
And hopefully we will read it.
Fatu Badiane Markey 19:22
I was gonna say, keep it short guys, keep it short.
Shekerah Primus 19:29
Or if there is an audio verions, I will certainly listen to it.
Fatu Badiane Markey 19:34
I'll second that. Yeah, I mean, it was fun talking about this with you Shekerah. Thank you for asking about this book. Hopefully we'll do a couple more of these episodes. That'd be really nice.
Shekerah Primus 19:48
So until next time, guys. Bye!
Outro 19:50
Thank you so much for listening to the We Love Science podcast. We we will return in about a month with season 3. See you guys soon!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai