Reviews about the book:
Book Review by Matthew L. Miller, Director of Science Communications for The Nature Conservancy and editor of the Cool Green Science blog,
Review Excerpt: "...Rey’s book Extinct Birds Project is essential reading if you have an interest in birds and bird conservation. It’s far more than an exhibition book. In fact, it contains some of the most original writing on extinct birds I’ve encountered. I don’t write that lightly. I have read a lot on extinct species. Unfortunately, historical records for many lost birds are scant, leaving authors to repeat the same narratives and rely on the same (often fourth-hand) sources. Rey uses the resources of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to track down what we know about the birds, their habits, and the social and environmental factors that led to their extinction. This alone is reason to read the book. But I especially appreciated that Rey, when possible, explores the lives of the bird collectors responsible for the specimen. He even includes a selection on bird collection techniques, fascinating reading for an aficionado of old-school natural history expeditions like me."
Full article available at:
https://blog.nature.org/2019/07/09/the-extinct-birds-project/
James Prosek, author of eleven books, Peabody Award winner and selected for the New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice .
"Alberto Rey’s extinct bird project is primarily an effort to question what we as humans stand to lose when an organism, fashioned by millions of years of evolution, goes extinct. As a visual artist he has tackled questions of geographical identity, and death and decay, of pollution by the hand of man, and the activity of human predation (he’s a renowned catch and release fly fisherman). The beautiful, though viscerally dark and haunting paintings he has created for this exhibition and book plumb equally complex and richly wrought subject matter. What does it mean to collect specimens? Is it worth killing an animal so future generations of humans can study them? Rey’s work communicated the wondrous experience of seeing and touching the plumage and colors of a creature as mysterious as a bird. This experience would be hard to duplicate without the specimen. I will leave the conclusions to the viewer, about whether or not collecting should be done in the 21st century. But the provocation is Rey’s contribution to this intensely interesting history of humans observing and depicting things in nature. "
Jennifer Ackerman, author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Genius of Birds.
"What a poignant and beautiful book. Alberto Rey catalogues seventeen birds that have vanished from the face of the earth—the Black Mamo and the Laughing Owl, the Pink-headed Duck, the Imperial Woodpecker, and the Paradise Parrot. In moving prose, he tells the stories of their lives and their demise, who collected the last remaining birds of their kind and why. And he memorializes their “small, lifeless, feathered bodies” in photographs and paintings so full of feeling they take your breath away. This is a book to keep around and to give to others, to remind us all of the disappearance of beloved bird species occurring all around us. "
Description of Extinct Birds Project Book:
"The Extinct Birds Project started in 2015 after Alberto Rey witnessed a drawer full of extinct birds at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, NY. On the clean white paper were the bodies of seven extinct birds and around a dozen other threatened species. A tremendous veil of sadness laced every one of the specimens and countless questions immediately ran through Alberto's mind: How did the institution get these extinct birds? Why did they go extinct? Should they have been collected if they went extinct? Where were these birds collected? Have the bodies been gutted and filled with cotton? How do they do that? Who and how were these specimens collected? What were the collectors’ lives like?
This beautifully-designed and illustrated full-color book, which accompanies an exhibition and this website, tries to answer these questions and several others about seventeen extinct birds species. The publication examines at least one of the specimens from each of these species and the ornithologist who collected them. The essays and illustrations presents complicated global environmental and societal issues in an accessible and interesting manner."
The book consist of 208 full-color pages with 143 illustrations. It was printed in the USA on post-consumer recycled paper and complies with Lacey Act requirements and is chain-of-custody tri-certified from sustainable forests.
To purchase the Extinct Birds Project book, please email Alberto Rey at ([email protected]) or contact him at 716-410-7003.
Book Review by Matthew L. Miller, Director of Science Communications for The Nature Conservancy and editor of the Cool Green Science blog,
Review Excerpt: "...Rey’s book Extinct Birds Project is essential reading if you have an interest in birds and bird conservation. It’s far more than an exhibition book. In fact, it contains some of the most original writing on extinct birds I’ve encountered. I don’t write that lightly. I have read a lot on extinct species. Unfortunately, historical records for many lost birds are scant, leaving authors to repeat the same narratives and rely on the same (often fourth-hand) sources. Rey uses the resources of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to track down what we know about the birds, their habits, and the social and environmental factors that led to their extinction. This alone is reason to read the book. But I especially appreciated that Rey, when possible, explores the lives of the bird collectors responsible for the specimen. He even includes a selection on bird collection techniques, fascinating reading for an aficionado of old-school natural history expeditions like me."
Full article available at:
https://blog.nature.org/2019/07/09/the-extinct-birds-project/
James Prosek, author of eleven books, Peabody Award winner and selected for the New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice .
"Alberto Rey’s extinct bird project is primarily an effort to question what we as humans stand to lose when an organism, fashioned by millions of years of evolution, goes extinct. As a visual artist he has tackled questions of geographical identity, and death and decay, of pollution by the hand of man, and the activity of human predation (he’s a renowned catch and release fly fisherman). The beautiful, though viscerally dark and haunting paintings he has created for this exhibition and book plumb equally complex and richly wrought subject matter. What does it mean to collect specimens? Is it worth killing an animal so future generations of humans can study them? Rey’s work communicated the wondrous experience of seeing and touching the plumage and colors of a creature as mysterious as a bird. This experience would be hard to duplicate without the specimen. I will leave the conclusions to the viewer, about whether or not collecting should be done in the 21st century. But the provocation is Rey’s contribution to this intensely interesting history of humans observing and depicting things in nature. "
Jennifer Ackerman, author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Genius of Birds.
"What a poignant and beautiful book. Alberto Rey catalogues seventeen birds that have vanished from the face of the earth—the Black Mamo and the Laughing Owl, the Pink-headed Duck, the Imperial Woodpecker, and the Paradise Parrot. In moving prose, he tells the stories of their lives and their demise, who collected the last remaining birds of their kind and why. And he memorializes their “small, lifeless, feathered bodies” in photographs and paintings so full of feeling they take your breath away. This is a book to keep around and to give to others, to remind us all of the disappearance of beloved bird species occurring all around us. "
Description of Extinct Birds Project Book:
"The Extinct Birds Project started in 2015 after Alberto Rey witnessed a drawer full of extinct birds at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, NY. On the clean white paper were the bodies of seven extinct birds and around a dozen other threatened species. A tremendous veil of sadness laced every one of the specimens and countless questions immediately ran through Alberto's mind: How did the institution get these extinct birds? Why did they go extinct? Should they have been collected if they went extinct? Where were these birds collected? Have the bodies been gutted and filled with cotton? How do they do that? Who and how were these specimens collected? What were the collectors’ lives like?
This beautifully-designed and illustrated full-color book, which accompanies an exhibition and this website, tries to answer these questions and several others about seventeen extinct birds species. The publication examines at least one of the specimens from each of these species and the ornithologist who collected them. The essays and illustrations presents complicated global environmental and societal issues in an accessible and interesting manner."
The book consist of 208 full-color pages with 143 illustrations. It was printed in the USA on post-consumer recycled paper and complies with Lacey Act requirements and is chain-of-custody tri-certified from sustainable forests.
To purchase the Extinct Birds Project book, please email Alberto Rey at ([email protected]) or contact him at 716-410-7003.
BOOK TIMELINE:
- July 28, 2018 - After presenting lecture at Wild America Nature Festival in Panama Rocks, New York, I meet Jennifer Ackerman, author of the the New York Times Bestseller, The Genius of Birds. Jennifer later write a blurb for the book: "What a poignant and beautiful book. Alberto Rey catalogues seventeen birds that have vanished from the face of the earth—the Black Mamo and the Laughing Owl, the Pink-headed Duck, the Imperial Woodpecker, and the Paradise Parrot. In moving prose, he tells the stories of their lives and their demise, who collected the last remaining birds of their kind and why. And he memorializes their “small, lifeless, feathered bodies” in photographs and paintings so full of feeling they take your breath away. This is a book to keep around and to give to others, to remind us all of the disappearance of beloved bird species occurring all around us. "
- July 20, 2018 - Book arrive!
- June 21, 2018 - Here's the finished version that will be published. Book was designed by Jason Dilworth.
Here's the PDF of the cover:
- July 28, 2018 - After presenting lecture at Wild America Nature Festival in Panama Rocks, New York, I meet Jennifer Ackerman, author of the the New York Times Bestseller, The Genius of Birds. Jennifer later write a blurb for the book: "What a poignant and beautiful book. Alberto Rey catalogues seventeen birds that have vanished from the face of the earth—the Black Mamo and the Laughing Owl, the Pink-headed Duck, the Imperial Woodpecker, and the Paradise Parrot. In moving prose, he tells the stories of their lives and their demise, who collected the last remaining birds of their kind and why. And he memorializes their “small, lifeless, feathered bodies” in photographs and paintings so full of feeling they take your breath away. This is a book to keep around and to give to others, to remind us all of the disappearance of beloved bird species occurring all around us. "
- July 20, 2018 - Book arrive!
- June 21, 2018 - Here's the finished version that will be published. Book was designed by Jason Dilworth.
Here's the PDF of the cover:
| extinct_birds_cover-_reduced_size.pdf |
and here's the PDF of the inside:
| extinct_birds_project-_reduced_size_.pdf |
- June 1, 2018 - Here's the preliminary version of the book.
| Extinct Birds Project- June 1, 2018 version.pdf |
- May 11, 2018 - Here's a sneak peak at one of the two-page spreads for the 208 full-color page publication.
A l b e r t o R e y w w w . a l b e r t o r e y . c o m a l b e r t o @ a l b e r t o r e y . c o m