Birds: The Return Flight

Monday, February 8th, 2021

In this BONUS episode, the Histories of the Unexpected duo, James and Sam, once again take to the skies to swoop upon the expected history of BIRDS! Which in this episode is all about it’s also all about homing pigeons in WWI and WWII, the Dickin Medal and honouring of animals during the Second World War, including super pigeon hero William of Orange. It’s also all about Viking culture, which fluttered with birds from the evidence of osteoarchaeology (the study of animal bones from archaeological sites) which shows us that birds were a common feature of the Viking diet; use of birds for navigation; and mythological birds, including perhaps the most famous birds in Norse legend, Huginn and Muninn, which perched on the shoulders of the god Odin, and flew all over the world gathering information for him. Who knew!

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