Author: HaverschmidtPublisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004631054
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
Black-Tailed Godwit
Author: HaverschmidtPublisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004631054
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
The Black-tailed Godwit
Author: Bird Sense
Author: Tim BirkheadPublisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 140883054X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise?Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses - vision and hearing - but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a birds' sense of taste, or smell, or touch or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away - how do they do it?Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, it identifies ways we can escape from them to seek new horizons in bird behaviour.There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation and an understanding of birds and their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science.
Flight Lines
Author: Andrew DarbyPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643135775
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A trans-world journey with an extraorindary shorebird—from Australia's southern ocean to the Arctic and back—that explores the mysteries of the natural world and its power to heal. As the sun lowered and turned Gulf St Vincent fiery, they each called a high-pitched 'peeooowiii!', flashed their black wing-pits, spread their tail skirts and took flight... In a luminous new boook, Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two seemingly-humble Grey Plovers, little-known migratory shorebirds, as they take previously uncharted ultramarathon flights from the southern coast of Australia to Arctic breeding grounds. On these death-defying flights they dodge predators, typhoons, exhaustion, and countless other dangers before they can breed...and then survive the jrouney all over again and return south to their feeding grounds. But the greatest threat to these, and other long-distance migrants on the flyway, is China's "dragon economy," which is engulfing their vital Yellow Sea staging spots. In Flight Lines, we meet the dedicated people of all nationalities and backgrounds working to save these intrepid birds, from Russia to Alaska, from the rim of the Arctic Sea to the coasts of the Southern Ocean. Out of their hard-won science Darby finds hope for the birds—an unexpected bright light for our times. But his journey to understand these marvellous birds almost ends when he is suddenly diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Then he finds science coming to his rescue too, as his own story and the journey of these little birds intersect in an unexpected and beautiful way.
Geographical Variation in Waders
Author: M. EngelmoerPublisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401150168
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Book Description
Morphometrical differentiation 63 Prediction of breeding origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Body mass 69 Primary moult 69 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The taxonomy of the Eurasian Golden Plover 69 The existence of a partial breast-feather moult during breeding 69 Morphometrical differentiation between both sexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 The occurrence of primary moult on the breeding grounds 70 Summary 70 6 Grey Plover - Pluvialis squatarola 71 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Morphometrical differentiation 77 Prediction of breeding origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Accuracy 81 Exclusivity 81 Contact zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Body mass 85 Primary moult 85 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 The taxonomy of the Grey Plover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Small size at northern latitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Morphometrical variation in the Palearctic 87 Summary 87 7 Red Knot - Calidris canutus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Morphometrical differentiation 93 Prediction of breeding origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Accuracy 99 Exclusivity 101 Contact zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Body mass 102 Primary moult 103 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 of the Knot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 The taxonomy Is the knot breeding in Yakutia? 106 Different degrees of geographical variation in the d'd' and !f!f 106 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 8 Sanderling - Calidris alba 109 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Morphometrical differentiation 111 Prediction of breeding origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Accuracy 116 Exclusivity 118 Contact zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Body mass 118 Primary moult 118 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 The taxonomy of the Sanderling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Sexing Sanderlings 119 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 VI 9 Curlew Sandpiper - Calidris ferruginea 121 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Morphometrical differentiation 123 Prediction of a bird's sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Accuracy 127 Exclusivity 127 Body mass 127 Primary moult 127 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 The taxonomy of the Curlew Sandpiper 127 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lives of North American Birds
Author: Kenn KaufmanPublisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618159888
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 708
Book Description
The bestselling natural history of birds, lavishly illustrated with 600 colorphotos, is now available for the first time in flexi binding.
Living on the Wind
Author: Scott WeidensaulPublisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780865475915
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years.
Birds of Kenya's Rift Valley
Author: Adam Scott KennedyPublisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691159076
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Kenya's Rift Valley includes four major national parks--Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, Mount Longonot, and Hell's Gate--as well as many smaller areas that are outstanding for wildlife. Birds of Kenya's Rift Valley features the 320 bird species that are most likely to be encountered on safari in this world-famous region, which runs from Lake Baringo in the north to Lake Magadi in the south. Featuring over 500 stunning color photos, this beautiful guide breaks new ground with its eye-catching layout and easy-to-use format. The book follows a habitat-based approach and provides interesting information about the ecology and behaviors of each species. Birds of Kenya's Rift Valley avoids technical jargon in the species descriptions, which makes the guide easily accessible to anyone. With it, you will be identifying birds in no time. Stunning photos of 320 bird species Major plumage variations depicted Jargon-free text Helpful notes on what to look and listen for, behavior, and why some birds are so named
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds
Author: Scott WeidensaulPublisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393608913
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 383
Book Description
New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.
Carpenter's Gothic
Author: William GaddisPublisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0141182229
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge—is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, The Washington Post Book World).