The wonder of a hummingbird egg weighs no less than the Milky Way. True passion knows no bounds: this book is for all bird lovers and those who know one. Bernd Brunner has researched the fascinating lives of those who were so captivated by birds that they dedicated their lives to them - from moderate examples like Frederick II, 1194-1250 (the first great ornithologist and falconer on the throne) to Leonardo da Vinci (the developer of the first flying machines), Charles Darwin (who owed his crucial ideas on evolution not to finches, but to the pigeons he collected from around the world) and Konrad Lorenz, who took on the role of a goose mother. Of course, there were also more extreme forms: Phoebe Snetsinger, for example, a millionaire who...