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This guide to the feathers of Europe's birds covers more than 400 species, with an innovative key allowing for exceptionally precise identification by colour as well feather structure and shape. Collection and conservation methods, locations of feathers on the bird, and identification and description of the feathers of species are clearly explained and richly illustrated. The large format of the book allows feathers to be shown in great detail. - The feathers of more than 400 European species are described, more than 300 are illustrated, and there is a total of 400 photographs. - A large format guide allows for efficient identification. - Presents a novel and innovative method to recognise the feathers of Europe's birds.
A comprehensive guide to the feathers of European birds. This guide to the feathers of Europe's birds presents a novel and innovative method to recognise the feathers of Europe's birds. Covering over 400 species, an innovative key allows for exceptionally precise identification by colour as well feather structure and shape. Collection and conservation methods, locations of feathers on the bird, and identification and description of the feathers of species are clearly explained and richly illustrated, with more than 400 photographs. The large format of the book allows feathers to be shown in great detail.
Examines extinction in birds, with case studies of critically endangered species and the research initiatives designed to save them.
This eagerly awaited guide offers the most comprehensive treatment ever published on the gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. A total of 43 species is treated, and every species is described in considerable detail, with a full description of each plumage and racial variation. Gulls are intelligent, versatile, opportunistic, and ecological generalists. As such, they exploit a variety of habitats, both coastal and inland, take a wide range of food, and are often extremely abundant. They are also great wanderers, with several American species regularly appearing in Western Europe and vice versa. As well as identification criteria, this book includes an up-to-date assessment of the range and...
This is a guide to 'true' finches and sparrows illustrating all the species, many races and most sex and age variations, with almost 950 portraits. The maps accompanying the illustrations show breeding and wintering ranges for all species. Although the guide is not primarily intended for cagebird enthusiasts, it will also be useful for those wishing to know more about the species encountered in captivity.
This book is the first comprehensive guide to all the Old World buntings and North American sparrows. It includes 39 plates in full colour depicting all the species and distinct races.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Mandarin Duck, one of the largest and best-studied is in southern England. The Mandarin Duck is a small and (in the case of the males) spectacularly colourful species of waterfowl. Widely kept in aviaries around the world, populations often escaped to form wild colonies. Although declining and nowadays surprisingly hard to find, Britain's wild Mandarin population is probably more numerous than that of the duck's true home, China and the Russian Far East, where it is now endangered. This Poyser monograph is a detailed account of this beautiful duck's lifestyle and biology, with particular emphasis on invasive populations in Britain and overseas. It is a superb addition to the long-running and acclaimed Poyser series.
This thought-provoking text offers many insights not generally perceived by ornithologist or botanist and is illustrated in masterly fashion by John Busby's lively drawings. The book's subtitle - A study of an ecological interaction - properly reflects the author's theme but may tend to hide the fact that the relationships between birds and berries can be much more than the simple, mutually advantageous systems ('eat my fruits, spread my seeds' ) they may seem at first to be. Therein lies the core of the book - the less obvious intricacies and implications of plant/bird associations, the co-evolution of species in some cases and the adaptation of a species (bird or plant) to further its own ...
Breeding along the northern Pacific coast from British Columbia to Japan, this little known bird dwelt in relative obscurity until it became the focus of a conservation debate which has resulted in a new National Park in the Queen Charlotte Islands, where half the world's population breeds. It made the headlines again when a lost, lone bird suddenly appeared at Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, England, in May 1990 and again in April 1991. The Ancient Murrelet and its three congeners are unique amongst seabirds in that their young are entirely precocial, leaving the nest as soon as they hatch to grow up at sea. Tony Gaston has carried out the only detailed study of the bird, in the fine mature coastal forests of the Queen Charlotte Islands. His work has revealed their complex social behaviour, the song behaviour of the males and the species' response to the variety of predators which they face - from Peregrines to Deer Mice. His story is set against a survey of the species worldwide and the grandeur of the northwest Pacific coast. The illustrations of Ian Jones, who also assisted with the research, capture the bird and its environment beautifully.
The epic story of why passenger pigeons became extinct and what that says about our current relationship with the natural world. When Europeans arrived in North America, 25 to 40 percent of the continent's birds were passenger pigeons, traveling in flocks so massive as to block out the sun for hours or even days. The downbeats of their wings would chill the air beneath and create a thundering roar that would drown out all other sound. John James Audubon, impressed by their speed and agility, said a lone passenger pigeon streaking through the forest “passes like a thought.” How prophetic-for although a billion pigeons crossed the skies 80 miles from Toronto in May of 1860, little more tha...