Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin's Strangest Idea

"[An] intriguing philosophical journey into a critical issue within evolutionary theory that for too long has remained unresolved." —Wall Street Journal

"Matt Ridley is one of our finest science writers. This book is a treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike." —Richard Dawkins, author of The Genetic Book of The Dead and The God Delusion

The New York Times bestselling author of Genome and The Evolution of Everything revisits Darwin’s revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.

In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridley’s investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an arduous and even deadly ritual called a "lek." To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. When achieved, consummation with a female takes seconds. So why the months of practice and preparation that is elaborate, extravagant, exhausting and elegant?

The full answer remains a mystery. Evolutionary biologists can explain why males are generally the eager sellers, females the discriminating buyers. But they struggle to explain why, in some species, this extravagance goes beyond the mere gaudy, taking on bizarre shapes, postures, and behavior. And further, why these bird displays seem beautiful to us humans, a species with seemingly no skin in the game.

Using an early morning "lek" as his starting point, Ridley explores the scientific research into the evolution of bright colors, exotic ornaments, and elaborate displays in this fascinating work of ornithology and animal behavior. Charles Darwin thought the purpose of such displays was to "charm" females. Though Darwin’s theory was initially dismissed and buried for decades, recent scientific research has proven him newly right—there is a powerful evolutionary force quite distinct from natural selection: mate choice. In Birds, Sex and Beauty, Ridley reopens the history of Darwin’s vexed theory, laying bare a century of disagreement in this compelling work of popular science about an idea so powerful, so weird, and so wonderful, we may have yet to fully understand its implications.

This landmark work of natural history explores the profound questions at the heart of beauty and evolution:

• Darwin's Lost Theory: Discover why Darwin’s revolutionary idea of mate choice was buried for nearly a century and what modern science has revealed about his once-dismissed breakthrough.
• The Science of Beauty: Explore the fascinating question of why the songs and plumage of birds, from the Black Grouse to species around the globe, seem beautiful to the human eye.
• Ritual and Extravagance: Delve into the exhausting, elaborate, and often deadly mating rituals that see some birds spend months in preparation for a transaction that lasts only seconds.
• Evolutionary Puzzles: Unpack the complex evolutionary theory that explains why extravagance often wins out over simple survival, and what it reveals about life’s deepest impulses.

“Matt Ridley is one of our finest science writers. Here he revisits the fascinating and controversial topic of sexual selection, this time in a series of penetrating meditations from his hide, as he watches the courtship rituals of grouse, peacocks, snipe, ruffs and others. The book is a treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike.” - Richard Dawkins, author of The Genetic Book of The Dead and The God Delusion

“A tour de force! Simply the best account—among a great many—of Darwin’s ground-breaking and far-reaching concept of sexual selection, from its inception to our current understanding inspired by the tale of a black grouse.” - Tim Birkhead, ornithologist and author of The Wisdom of Birds

“Matt Ridley, a man of many talents—thinker, scholar, naturalist, birder and writer—homes in on the black grouse that inhabit the high, cold moors above his house. 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, zoologist and author of Origin Africa

“This is 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. We are not alone in finding the world breathtakingly, mesmerically wonderful.” - Mary Colwell, environmentalist and author of Curlew Moon

“Gorgeous and great fun—clearly a work of love. Your readers will be enchanted and enlightened.”  - Stewart Brand, co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog

"A fascinating romp through the colorful, noisy world of our feathered cousins, the birds. You'll see a lot of them in us, and a lot of us in them." - Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape that Understood the Universe and Professor of Psychology at University of Nottingham Malaysia

“[An] intriguing philosophical journey into a critical issue within evolutionary theory that for too long has remained unresolved....Mr. Ridley suggests, in one of his book’s most fascinating and extraordinary propositions, that the human mind itself may have evolved through sexual selection and may be ‘one of sexual selection’s greatest creations.’ By the standards of birds, we are dull creatures, lacking iridescent plumage and complex courtship dances. But our minds dazzle and shimmer like the plumage, songs and rituals of the most exotic species.”

“Birds are ‘the life of the skies,’ dazzling us with their beauty, and also a source of scientific revelation, lifting us out of our mammalian provincialism and allowing us to see the full scope of the evolutionary process. Matt Ridley is both an inspiring nature writer and a limpid science explainer, and this book itself is filled with beauty and insight.”  - Steven Pinker, author of Rationality and Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University

“Compelling…vivid portraits of the natural world … Ridley is a skilled naturalist and observer of wildlife… [his] interweaving of travel writing with popular science works well [and] will appeal to connoisseurs of each genre.” - Nature

“…illum­inating, incisive and a pleasure to read.” - Literary Review (UK)

“…clear and entertaining. . . .Ridley explains all this history with lucidity and wit.” - The New Statesman (UK)

“This is a fascinating story told with wit, scholarship and the passion of a true conversationist. Lord Ridley writes in the best tradition of great British naturalists.” - Country Life Magazine (UK)

“…fascinating and accessible…Ridley, very clearly, loves birds — and the enthusiasm is infectious.” - The Times (UK)