Overview: As humanity steadily decimates the global bird population, scientists and scholars are discovering that birds may have played a greater role in shaping human evolution than primates.

Our distant ancestors imitated birdsong to develop language and followed bird migration flyways around the world, consistently settling in prime bird habitat.

Church of Birds is an eco-history of human evolution that’s supported by recent scientific discoveries, ancient myth, and sacred texts.

Verdict: Across dozens of cultures, migratory birds were seen as divine agents of a benevolent sun, delivering seeds to the landscape in spring and guiding souls to a heavenly paradise in the fall. These mythic roles were ultimately incorporated into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Evolution is one of nature’s greatest shows. From humble beginnings, it gave rise to fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals; it took the ancestors of apes and sculpted them into humans. These grand spectacles play out across millions of years, dazzling us with their before-and-after shots. But if we look closely, we can sometimes glimpse evolution unfolding in real time and often we are surprised to find ourselves directing the show.

Ergo, what we have here in the highly-enthralling Church of Birds: An Eco-History of Myth and Religion from author Ben H. Gagnon, is the central narrative about the impact that birds have had on human evolution from the time of the Neanderthals through to the rose of civilization.

Taking a quick dive into the bird pool so to speak, once birds could fly, they could elude almost all predators. Since they were now less likely to be eaten in any given year, they could live longer and produce more offspring. With longevity came the opportunity and the need to develop increased intelligence. For as we know, it is an advantage for long-living animals to be smart because it helps them to survive long enough to raise their young to adulthood.

So the big question here is, with both humans and birds having evolved measurable intelligence down the time of history, both overcoming challenges galore, how does one compare their God-given abilities fairly?

Well, Church of Birds combines modern science and ancient myth to tell a long-forgotten story about the profound bond between humans and bird; and a story much older than previously imagined.

Bird migration mapping, the human fossil record, and recent scientific studies show that our most distant ancestors consistently chose to live in prime bird habitat, a wise choice for an optimistic species that was itself migratory.

The earliest farmers settled in the prime bird habitat of serpentine river systems fed by the headwaters of volcanic mountain rangers. Before the advent of Judaism and Christianity, it was a nearly universal condition to perceive migratory birds as divine agents and messengers of the sun, delivering seeds every Spring and carrying souls to Heaven in autumn.

In closing, what Gagnon does here is wonderfully weave a most dedicated and cognizant telling of both bird lore and science told through the ages, that not only details how the two were entwined early on (migration routes), but how humans also learnt how to sing and make music; all due to the birds’ most harmonious and melodic of sounds.

Trust me when I say that even if you have no interest in birds or the history of the human race, as a whole, but you find yourself lost for something to read, this is an incredible book to have ready.

About the Author - Award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, and novelist Ben H. Gagnon tells a long-forgotten story of the profound bond between people and birds, and how humanity’s early eco-history ultimately shaped the world’s global religions. He lives in Charlemont, MS.

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