From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. "There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries -- What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communic... View More...
John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country-often alone and on foot-to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself. Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon's life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his am... View More...
A general "how-to" book for international birding is absent. This unprecedented new book by top-selling author Les Beletsky (Birds of the World, Birdsongs) will aim to explain why birders are interested in going to other countries and where they like to go. It will act as a "bridge" for domestic birders, allowing them to build on their exciting new knowledge as beginner birders by accessing other countries to see species they cannot see at home. The book, in six chapters, will describe each continent with respect to birds and birding, and tell what kinds of birds birders seek out in those plac... View More...
Both beginning birders and serious bird enthusiasts will find this classic work ideal for casual reading and readily accessible as a reference. 1,048 questions and answers. Bibliography. Index. 38 line drawings and 16 photos. "Painstakingly researched and entertainingly written by America s best known ornithologists." Danbury (CT) News-Times. " View More...
The man the Wall Street Journal calls the bard of birding has gathered together in one book all the skills and tools available to enhance one's bird-watching experience. 100 photos. View More...
This is the most complete and authoritative reference book about the birds of North America--up to date and in field-guide format. The Birder's Handbook is the first of its kind: a portable library of fascinating information not included in your identification guide. For each of the 646 species of birds that breed in North America, The Birder's Handbook will tell you at a glance: * Where the bird nests, and which sex(es) build(s) the nest; * How many eggs the bird lays, what they look like, which patent incubates and for how long, and how the young are cared for; * Food preferences and foragi... View More...
After her four kids were nearly grown and she was about to turn 50, Phoebe Snetsinger was told she had less than a year to live. Snetsinger, a St. Louis housewife and avid backyard birder, decided to spend that year traveling the world in search of birds. As it turned out, her doctors were wrong, but Phoebe's passion had been ignited and she spent the next eighteen years crisscrossing the globe recklessly staking out her quarry. En route she contracted malaria in Zambia, nearly fell to her death in Zaire, and was kidnapped and gang raped on the outskirts of Port Moresby. Yet none of this curbe... View More...
In the early nineteenth century 25 to 40 percent of North America's birds were passenger pigeons, traveling in flocks so massive as to block out the sun for hours or even days. The down beats of their wings would chill the air beneath and create a thundering roar that would drown out all other sound. Feeding flocks would appear as "a blue wave four or five feet high rolling toward you." 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 mil... View More...
The Backyard Bird Watcher is the ultimate guide for all who enjoy watching wild birds at their back doors. Richly anecdotal, The Backyard Bird Watcher provides a wealth of practical information and step-by-step, surefire ways to convert any backyard into a first-rate bird sanctuary. Learn how to: * set up feeding stations, bird houses, water areas * solve pest problems * treat sick and injured birds * photograph wild birds. The Backyard Bird Watcher offers a month-by-month planning and preparation calendar to ensure bird-watching enjoyment, as well as lists of organizations, manufacturers, ... View More...
"One of the most interesting discoveries I've seen in animal sociobiology in years." --E.O. Wilson Why do ravens, generally understood to be solitary creatures, share food between each other during winter? On the surface, there didn't appear to be any biological or evolutionary imperative behind the raven's willingness to share. The more Bernd Heinrich observed their habits, the more odd the bird's behavior became. What started as mere curiosity turned into an impassioned research project, and Ravens In Winter, the first research of its kind, explores the fascinating biological puzzle of the r... View More...
The tragedy of extinction is explained through the dramatic story of a legendary bird, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and of those who tried to possess it, paint it, shoot it, sell it, and, in a last-ditch effort, save it. A powerful saga that sweeps through two hundred years of history, it introduces artists like John James Audubon, bird collectors like William Brewster, and finally a new breed of scientist in Cornell's Arthur A. "Doc" Allen and his young ornithology student, James Tanner, whose quest to save the Ivory-bill culminates in one of the first great conservation showdowns in U.S. his... View More...
Bird lovers will flock to this whimsical celebration of the avian world. Packed with all things feathered 'The Little Big Book of Birds' offers literature, poetry, trivia, helpful tips, humour, recipes, profiles of respected birders, & advice for the seasoned birder & beginner alike. View More...
A captivating A-Z treasury about birds and birding Birdpedia is an engaging illustrated compendium of bird facts and birding lore. Featuring nearly 200 entries--on topics ranging from plumage and migration to birds in art, literature, and folklore--this enticing collection is brimming with wisdom and wit about all things avian. Christopher Leahy sheds light on hawk-watching, twitching, and other rituals from the sometimes mystifying world of birding that entail a good deal more than their names imply. He explains what kind of bird's nests you can eat, why mocking birds mock, and many other cur... View More...
"I cannot believe what a gripping read this is." --Robin Young, host of NPR's Here and Now "A book that will change forever the way you look at these little birds."--Los Angeles Times Before he collided with a limousine, Gabriel, an Anna's hummingbird with head and throat cloaked in iridescent magenta feathers, could spiral hundreds of feet in the air, dive 60 miles per hour in a courtship display, hover, and fly backward. When he arrived in rehab caked in road grime, he was so badly injured that he could barely perch. But Terry Masear, one of the busiest hummingbird rehabilitators in the co... View More...
A leading naturalist and writer travels the globe in search of a prized-and vanishing-bird Cranes are ubiquitous in the earliest legends of the world's peoples, where they often figure as harbingers of heaven and omens of longevity and good fortune. They are still held sacred in many places, and for good reason. Their large size and need for wilderness habitat makes them an "umbrella species" whose wellbeing assures that of other creatures and of the ecosystem at large. Moreover, the enormous spans of their migrations are a symbol of, and stimulus to, international efforts at conservation. In ... View More...
From the author of the National Book Award Finalist The Soul of an Octopus. Meet the ladies: a flock of smart, affectionate, highly individualistic chickens who visit their favorite neighbors, devise different ways to hide from foxes, and mob the author like she's a rock star. In these pages you'll also meet Maya and Zuni, two orphaned baby hummingbirds who hatched from eggs the size of navy beans, and who are little more than air bubbles fringed with feathers. Their lives hang precariously in the balance--but with human help, they may one day conquer the sky. Snowball is a cockatoo whose dan... View More...
Life itself could never have been sustainable without seabirds. As Adam Nicolson writes: They are bringers of fertility, the deliverers of life from ocean to land. A global tragedy is unfolding. Even as we are coming to understand them, the number of seabirds on our planet is in freefall, dropping by nearly 70% in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than there were in 1950. Of the ten birds in this book, seven are in decline, at least in part of their range. Extinction stalks the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of the seabird colony, rolling around the bays and headlands o... View More...
Alex & Me is the remarkable true story of an extraordinary relationship between psychologist Irene M. Pepperberg and Alex, an African Grey parrot who proved scientists and accepted wisdom wrong by demonstrating an astonishing ability to communicate and understand complex ideas. A New York Times bestseller and selected as one of the paper's critic's Top Ten Books of the Year, Alex & Me is much more that the story of an incredible scientific breakthrough. It's a poignant love story and an affectionate remembrance of Pepperberg's irascible, unforgettable, and always surprising best friend.... View More...
