Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered why so many scientific handbooks on birds use paintings rather than photographs, or why the painters Killian Mullarney and Lars Johnson are such significant figures in ornithology? This book gives an account of the 500 years during which bird-painting reached such heights, and it traces the growth of scientific realism in this field. It shows how scientific understanding has shaped the art, and how artistic style has left its mark on the science. Birds cross frontiers unhindered, and the language of painting too knows no national barriers. This book explores the huge contribution of German painting to the international tradition. It looks at the work of great artists – Dürer and Rembrandt. It introduces the fascinating but neglected artists who made the landmark handbooks of the past. It pays tribute to those major figures of the last 150 years who brought the art to its perfection: Josef Wolf and Bruno Liljefors, and looks briefly at the competition with photography at the start of the twentieth century. It reveals the interlocking of art with the science of ornithology, as it was developed by figures such as Buffon and Darwin.