Showing 1–12 of 648 results
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Birds of Cambodia (Hardcover)
Artist/Author: Cambodia Bird Guide Association (CBGA) (Author)$110.00 Add to cartSandwiched principally between its better-known neighbours of Thailand, to the north and west, and Vietnam, to the east, the relatively small and comparatively low-lying country of Cambodia is dominated by the vast combined floodplains of the Tonle Sap (or Great Lake) and lower Mekong River. Unsurprisingly then, its principal attraction for birdwatchers is a suite of exceptionally scarce birds associated with wetlands and grasslands. Spearheading the list are the iconic Giant and White-shouldered Ibises, both of which are Critically Endangered, and a trio of almost equally rare vultures, including the iconic Red-headed Vulture. These rarities are the subject of an ongoing international conservation effort. The supporting cast includes Bengal Florican (also Critically Endangered), Sarus Crane (Vulnerable) and Mekong Wagtail (Near Threatened). Despite boasting just two endemic species, Cambodian Laughingthrush and the very recently described Cambodian Tailorbird, the latter’s discovery in the environs of the country’s capital Phnom Penh perhaps more than anything epitomises the potential to make cutting-edge ornithological findings in this still relatively under-explored nation. Birds of Cambodia offers the perfect introduction to the country’s varied avifauna.
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Birds of Cambodia (Flexicover)
Artist/Author: Cambodia Bird Guide Association (CBGA) (Author)$99.00 Add to cartSandwiched principally between its better-known neighbours of Thailand, to the north and west, and Vietnam, to the east, the relatively small and comparatively low-lying country of Cambodia is dominated by the vast combined floodplains of the Tonle Sap (or Great Lake) and lower Mekong River. Unsurprisingly then, its principal attraction for birdwatchers is a suite of exceptionally scarce birds associated with wetlands and grasslands. Spearheading the list are the iconic Giant and White-shouldered Ibises, both of which are Critically Endangered, and a trio of almost equally rare vultures, including the iconic Red-headed Vulture. These rarities are the subject of an ongoing international conservation effort. The supporting cast includes Bengal Florican (also Critically Endangered), Sarus Crane (Vulnerable) and Mekong Wagtail (Near Threatened). Despite boasting just two endemic species, Cambodian Laughingthrush and the very recently described Cambodian Tailorbird, the latter’s discovery in the environs of the country’s capital Phnom Penh perhaps more than anything epitomises the potential to make cutting-edge ornithological findings in this still relatively under-explored nation. Birds of Cambodia offers the perfect introduction to the country’s varied avifauna.
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Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season
Artist/Author: Pasquier, Roger F (Author), Margaret La Farge (Illustrator)$67.00 Add to cartBirds in Winter is the first book devoted to the ecology and behavior of birds during this most challenging season. Birds remaining in regions with cold weather must cope with much shorter days to find food and shelter even as they need to avoid predators and stay warm through the long nights, while migrants to the tropics must fit into very different ecosystems and communities of resident birds. Roger Pasquier explores how winter affects birds’ lives all through the year, starting in late summer, when some begin caching food to retrieve months later and others form social groups lasting into the next spring. During winter some birds are already pairing up for the following breeding season, when health through the winter contributes to nesting success.
Today, rapidly advancing technologies are enabling scientists to track individual birds through their daily and annual movements at home and across oceans and hemispheres, revealing new and unexpected information about their lives and interactions. But, as Birds in Winter shows, much is visible to any interested observer. Pasquier describes the season’s distinct conservation challenges for birds that winter where they have bred and for migrants to distant regions. Finally, global warming is altering the nature of winter itself. Whether birds that over millennia have evolved to survive this season can now adjust to a rapidly changing climate is a problem all people who enjoy watching them must consider.
Filled with elegant line drawings by artist and illustrator Margaret La Farge, Birds in Winter describes how winter influences the lives of birds from the poles to the equator.
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Birdstories: A History of the Birds of New Zealand
Artist/Author: Norman, Geoff$72.00 Add to cartKiwi, kākāpō, takahē, moa, tūī – these birds, and many others, are unique to Aotearoa New Zealand, and famous throughout the world. It was the 1873 publication of Walter Buller’s A History of the Birds of New Zealand that introduced overseas readers to these extraordinary creatures, and led New Zealanders as well to appreciate them in a way they had not before. Now, a century and a half later, Geoff Norman’s Birdstories builds on that legacy in a compelling, impeccably researched and beautifully presented account, which describes the origins of New Zealand’s birds, their place in both the Pākehā and Māori worlds, their survival and conservation, and the art they have inspired.
Geoff Norman writes of the birds’ unusual evolution, the disastrous impact of two waves of human migration, but too, the late nineteenth-century realisation that extinction need not be inevitable and the astonishing salvation stories of the following century.
Birdstories is a visual delight, rich in sketches and paintings by the scientists and draughtsmen who accompanied the early European explorers, and a remarkable range of works by contemporary artists. Much more than a source of fascinating information, this significant book is also a passionate call for action to save our remaining threatened species. Like the taonga it describes, Birdstories will be treasured by all who love and appreciate the unique birds of New Zealand.
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Kākāpō: Rescued from the Brink of Extinction
Artist/Author: Ballance, Alison$62.00 Add to cartKakapo is one of New Zealand’s most charismatic yet mysterious birds. It is also one of the world’s most threatened species and a New Zealand conservation success story.
An ancient, flightless, nocturnal, herbivorous giant parrot, the kakapo was once numerous throughout the country but is now extinct in its natural range. At its low point, the population was reduced to as few as 40 known individuals, but thanks to the hard work and innovation of the Kakapo Recovery Programme, New Zealand’s flagship threatened-species conservation programme, the kakapo population now exceeds 120.
Despite this exciting turnaround, there has not been a significant book on the kakapo since 1989. The story of this remarkable bird embraces science, conservation, ingenuity and personal dedication. Through an informative and entertaining mix of hard facts, history, and accounts of the daily and seasonal routines of kakapo and their minders, Alison Ballance brings together these threads to describe the natural history of the bird and tell the inspiring story of the Kakapo Recovery Programme. Illustrated throughout and with an appendix giving details of all known kakapo, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the natural world of New Zealand.
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Birds of Prey of Australia: A Field Guide (Third Edition)
Artist/Author: Debus, Stephen$45.00 Add to cartRaptors are popular and iconic birds, and are important ecologically, with some species listed as threatened. Yet they are among the most difficult birds to identify. This fully updated Third Edition of the popular and award-winning field guide Birds of Prey of Australia contains two sections: a field guide with distribution maps, detailed illustrations and information on identification; and a handbook which includes an overview of the current knowledge about raptors, including their biology, ecology and behaviour. An illustrated section on difficult-to-distinguish species pairs is also included, along with new photographs.
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How to Know the Birds: The Art & Adventure of Birding
Artist/Author: Floyd, Ted$45.00 Add to cartHow to Know the Birds introduces a new, holistic approach to bird-watching, by noting how behaviours, settings, and seasonal cycles connect with shape, song, colour, gender, age distinctions, and other features traditionally used to identify species. Expert author Ted Floyd begins by evoking a typical bird-watching moment, his entry into a thoughtful discussion of the traditions of field guides and bird identification. Then, with short essays on 200 observable species, he guides us through a year of becoming a better birder, each species representing another useful lesson: from explaining scientific nomenclature to noting how plumage changes with age, from chronicling migration patterns to noting hatchling habits. Pen-and-ink illustrations accompany Floyd’s charming prose, making How to Know the Birds a unique blend of narrative and field guide. A pleasure for birders of all ages, this witty book promises solid lessons for the beginner and smiles of recognition for the seasoned nature lover.
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The Wonder of Birds: What Birds Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
Artist/Author: Robbins, Jim$37.00 Add to cartOur relationship to birds is different from our relationship to other wild creatures. We love to watch them, listen to them, keep them as pets, wear their feathers, even converse with them. Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, clothing and feeding ourselves, and providing medical treatments. And they even have much to teach us about being human.
The Wonder of Birds illuminates qualities unique to birds that demonstrate just how invaluable they are to humankind – both ecologically and spiritually. The wings of turkey buzzards influenced the Wright brothers’ flight design; the chickadee’s song is considered by scientists to be the most sophisticated language in the animal world and a window into the evolution of our own language and our society; and the quietly powerful presence of eagles in the disadvantaged neighborhood of Anacostia, D.C., proved to be the most effective method for rehabilitating the troubled teenagers placed in charge of their care.
Exploring both cutting-edge scientific research and our oldest cultural beliefs, Robbins moves these astonishing creatures from the background of our lives to the foreground, from the quotidian to the miraculous, showing us that we must fight to save the imperilled bird population, for the sake of both the planet and humankind.
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A Parliament of Owls
Artist/Author: Unwin, Mike (Author), David Tipling (Illustrator), Tony Angell (Foreword By)$60.00 Add to cartOwls have always featured prominently in the mythology and folklore of a variety of cultures. These mysterious nocturnal creatures are thought to be symbols of wisdom, omens of death, and bringers of prophecy, and they have intrigued humankind since the earliest times.
To the ornithologist, of course, owls are simply birds of prey that are supremely adapted to hunting after dark. Equipped with extraordinary sensory perception that allows them to operate in complete darkness, they have evolved an impressive variety of forms. Common to all are the hooked bill and needle-sharp talons weapons every bit as lethal as those of eagles and other diurnal raptors. Among the owl’s unusual features are flight feathers with unzipped barbs that effectively silence its approach, and ears placed asymmetrically on the head, allowing it to calculate distance in the vertical as well as the horizontal plane and thus make pinpoint accurate strikes in pitch darkness by hearing alone.
A lavish celebration of these compelling birds, A Parliament of Owls looks at fifty of the most striking and interesting owl species around the world. It paints detailed portraits of characters as diverse as the Snowy Owl, which captures lemmings on the Arctic tundra, and the Burrowing Owl, which lives in dusty hollows beneath the South American pampas.
Mike Unwin, who has watched and admired owls all over the world, captures the essence of each species, while explaining the unique natural history that has made these silent assassins the most effective feathered predators of darkness. Along the way he describes a fascinating range of breeding and hunting behaviour, the unusual calls that have given rise to so much superstition, and the cultural impact of owls around the world.
A stunning range of photographs, taken and compiled by David Tipling, one of Britain’s foremost bird photographers, captures the beauty of each species and the drama of the landscapes they inhabit.
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Birds of the Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sundas and the Moluccas
Artist/Author: Arlott, Norman$90.00 Add to cartEvery species of bird you might encounter in the region is featured, apart from non-established introductions. This includes coverage of the Greater Sundas (Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo), the Philippines and Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Lesser Sundas and the Moluccas [Maluku]). Also included are the endemic species from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. As many of the major subspecies as possible are also included.
Beautiful artwork depicts their breeding plumage, and non-breeding plumage when it differs significantly. The accompanying text concentrates on the specific characteristics and appearance of each species that allow identification in the field, including voice and distribution maps.
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Pelican
Artist/Author: Allen, Barbara$25.00 Add to cartWith its distinctive, comical walk, large bill and association with the conservation movement, the pelican has attained iconic status. But the pelican has a chequered history. Classed as ‘unclean’ in the King James Bible, the legend of the compassionate pelican was later appropriated by Christianity to symbolise Christ’s sacrifice. This majestic bird, gifted to British royalty in 1664, has been celebrated in art and literature, from Shakespeare’s King Lear to the writing of Edward Lear, and is the recipient of three Guinness World Records. The pelican’s anatomy has been copied for paper plane construction, aircraft design and in 3d imaging, all while it has fought back from the threat of extinction, habitat destruction and environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Its resilience is as remarkable as its anatomy.
In this must-read book for all bird enthusiasts, Barbara Allen skilfully weaves together wildlife trivia, historical tales and the latest research to provide an engaging account of the cultural and natural history of this emblematic bird.
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Birds of the West Indies (Hardcover)
Artist/Author: Kirwan, Guy M, Anthony Levesque, Mark W Oberle, Christopher J Sharpe$135.00 Add to cartMost people associate the Caribbean with palm-fringed sandy beaches, cricket and rum. Mention the West Indies to birders and they think todies and tremblers, among a remarkable array of c. 190 endemic species. Furthermore, no fewer than six families are confined to the region, and another (spindalises) virtually so. The region also receives many vagrants from both North and South America, and even transatlantic arrivals from Europe. If this was not sufficient enticement, several of the most poorly known and enigmatic birds in the world – including Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Semper’s Warbler – as well as others requiring further taxonomic investigation offer additional allure. Also available in Flexicover (stock ID 19704)
Features:
– Taxonomy follows the HBW and Birdlife Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World
– Detailed texts covering status, habitat and behaviour, age, sex and geographical variation, voice, and confusion species.
– c. 1600 illustrations covering all species and distinctive subspecies, birds in flight, males and females, juveniles and non-breeding plumages, where appropriate.
– QR code for each species, linking to the Internet Bird Collection gallery of photos, videos and sounds.
– c. 570 full-colour range maps for all species other than vagrants.
– Well-marked subspecies groups receive full accounts, and the distributions of subspecies breeding in the region are clearly mapped.
