Birds, Sex and Beauty
The extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin’s strangest idea
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Birds, Sex and Beauty
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Matt Ridley
About this listen
In his new book, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley looks to the peculiar mating rituals of birds to better understand the rich origins and ongoing significance of Darwin's sexual selection theory.
‘Matt Ridley is one of our finest science writers … A treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike’ Richard Dawkins
Animals rarely treat sex as a simple or mutually beneficial transaction. Choosing a mate is often a transcendent event to be approached with reverence, suspicion, angst and quite a bit of violence. For Matt Ridley, nowhere is this more acute than in birds.
From a freezing hide on the Pennine moors at dawn, Ridley closely studies the rare Black Grouse. He is there for the lek – an elaborate courtship ritual of squabbling and strutting males. They dance and sing for hours each day to attract a mate over several months. With most males leaving exhausted and unsuccessful, Ridley looks at how females make their choice to cast fresh light on how such rituals have evolved and why.
His pursuit follows five generations of biologists from Darwin and Wallace to the present day, uncovering how they have grappled with the implications of sexual selection as an eccentric, gonzo form of evolution. While most Victorian scientists found it impossible to believe female birds could select mates, Darwin was obsessed with the idea of sexual as well as natural selection.
Drawing on his own lifelong passion, Ridley eavesdrops on the elaborate displays of bird species around the world, from the complex art installations made by Bowerbirds in Australia to the bubbling calls of Curlews in the UK’s declining moorlands. In a wonderful blend of nature writing and elegant exploration of recent evolutionary theory, Birds, Sex and Beauty shows not only how mate choice has shaped the natural world, including humans, but how the song and plumage of birds can be thrillingly, breathtakingly beautiful.
‘A tour de force! Simply the best account – among a great many – of Darwin’s ground-breaking and far-reaching concept of sexual selection’ Tim Birkhead, author of The Wisdom of Birds
©2025 Matt Ridley (P)2025 HarperCollins PublishersCritic Reviews
‘Matt Ridley is both an inspiring nature writer and a limpid science explainer, and this book is filled with beauty and insight’ Steven Pinker, author of Rationality and Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
‘In his highly readable book Ridley suggests that if we suppose our own evolution conforms to general patterns found throughout nature, perhaps it has been manifestations of wit, intelligence and mind that have appealed, over the eons, to the females of our own lineage’ Jonathan Kingdon, author of Origin Africa
‘A heady tour through the ideas about sexual selection, but it is more than a summary of the history of thought; it is also a commentary on how we share an appreciation of beauty with much of the natural world, whether that be in colour, movement or song … This book shows that sexual behaviour continues to be a mystery worthy of investigation’ Mary Colwell, author of Curlew Moon
‘Gorgeous and great fun … Readers will be enchanted and enlightened’ Stewart Brand, editor of Whole Earth Catalog
‘A captivating journey into the dazzling world of avian courtship, where feathers, dances and songs reveal the secrets of evolution – and offer a mirror to our own desires and dilemmas’ Steve Stewart-Williams, Professor of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia