Showing all 11 results
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Cuckoo: cheating by nature.
Artist/Author: Davies, Nick.$35.00 Add to cartBeloved by people as the herald of spring, for many birds the cuckoo is a signal of doom. Known for being a notorious cheat, cuckoos across the world have evolved extraordinary tricks to manipulate other species into raising their young. In this enormously engaging book, naturalist and scientist Nick Davies reveals how cuckoos trick their hosts. Using shrewd detective skills and field experiments, he uncovers an evolutionary arms race, in which hosts evolve better defences against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve novel forms of trickery. This is a fascinating corner of Darwin’s ‘entangled bank’, where creatures are continually evolving to keep up with changes in their rivals. Lively field drawings by James McCallum, and remarkable photographs, show cuckoos in action: from the female cuckoo laying her beautifully disguised egg, to the cuckoo chick ejecting the host’s eggs and young from the nest to ensure it gets the full attention of its foster parents.
Cuckoo offers a new insight not only into the secret lives of these extraordinary birds, but also into how cheating evolves and thrives in the natural world. -
Woodpeckers of the world: a photographic guide.
Artist/Author: Gormon, Gerard.$70.00 Add to cartWoodpeckers remain one of the most popular families of birds, and they are certainly one of the more unusual. Their legendary ability to excavate holes in wood is well known, and they are uniquely adapted for living in trees though a few species have become more adapted to ground-dwelling. The family ranges from the tiny piculets of tropical forests to the mighty Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico, sadly now extinct. In between there is a considerable variety of species, all of a roughly similar shape and design, inhabiting forests and woodlands through the world except Australasia and Antarctica.
This book is the first definitive guide to woodpeckers, covering all 239 species. Detailed text looks in detail at the biology of the birds, with particular emphasis on field identification, along with voice, habitat, status, racial variation and distribution. The text is accompanied by over 700 high-quality photographs, carefully selected to highlight identification criteria. Each species entry is completed by an accurate colour range map.
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Hornbills of the world: a photographic guide.
Artist/Author: Poonswad, Pilai, Alan Kemp and Morten Strange.$90.00 Add to cartThe first photographic monograph to the order of Bucerotiformes. Photographs illustrate all 57 species in tropical Africa and in Asia, male as well as female, and all distinct subspecies. Detailed descriptions of each species provides information distribution, ecology and habitats, breeding and status. There are additional chapters covering evolution, habits, social life, feeding and breeding ecology as well as conservation.
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Imperial dreams: tracking the Imperial woodpecker through the wild Sierra Madre.
Artist/Author: Gallagher, Tim.$33.00 Add to cartNaturalist Tim Gallagher journeys deep into the savagely beautiful Sierra Madre, home to rich wildlife and other natural treasures, and also to Mexican drug cartels, in a dangerous quest to locate the rarest bird in the world–the possibly extinct Imperial Woodpecker, the largest of all “carpinteros.” Explorer and noted bird expert Tim Gallagher is no stranger to the obsession for adventure. In the early 2000s, Gallagher rediscovered the legendary Ivory-billed woodpecker, which most scientists believed had been extinct for sixty years, causing an international stir. Now, in this book, Gallagher once again hits the trail, with a “natural treasure” map of sightings of the Imperial bestowed on him by a friend on his deathbed. Charged with continuing the quest of a line of distinguished naturalists, including the great Aldo Leopold, to find and protect the Imperial woodpecker in its last habitat, Gallagher ventures deep into isolated territory, the high pine forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental. In this mysterious, historically wild area, Geronimo led Apaches in their last stand and William Randolph Hearst inherited a storied ranch, which Pancho Villa looted. Today, drug lords rule the land. Here in the Sierra, the giant Imperial’s pounding drumbeat once echoed like the blows of an ax through the Sierra as it bored into the massive, grub-infested pines, hammering on them powerfully for weeks at a time until they groaned, shuddered, and finally toppled with a thunderous impact that shook the ground. The bird had largely disappeared by the early 1950s, yet rumors of Imperial Woodpeckers flying through remote forests persist.
Gallagher’s quest takes a terrifying turn as he encounters armed drug traffickers, burning houses, and fleeing villagers. His passionate mission, now a life-and-death drama, will keep armchair adventurers on the edge of their seats as he chases truth in the most dangerous of habitats.
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Cuckoos of the world.
Artist/Author: Erritzoe, Johannes, Clive F. Mann, Frederik P. Brammer, and Richard A. Fuller.$130.00 Add to cartThis authoritative handbook, part of the Helm Identification Guides series, looks in detail at the world’s cuckoos, couas and anis – the family Cuculidae. Famed as brood-parasites of other birds, the cuckoos include a diverse range of species, from the roadrunners of North America to the spectacular malkohas of southern Asia. This book discusses the biology and identification of these birds on a species-by-species basis, bringing together the very latest research with accurate range maps, more than 600 stunning colour photographs that illuminate age and racial plumage differences, and 36 superb plates by a team of internationally renowned artists.
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Travails of two Woodpeckers: Ivory-bills and Imperials.
Artist/Author: Snyder, Noel F.R. et al.$70.00 Add to cartNearly two feet long with striking black, white, and red plumage, the Ivory-billed and Imperial woodpeckers were two of the most impressive woodpeckers in the world. Both species were known to be in serious decline by the end of the nineteenth century and are likely extinct today, though occasional reports of sightings persist. While the Ivory-billed was one of the first endangered birds to receive intensive conservation attention, the efforts were too often misdirected, and too little, too late. Concern for the fate of the Imperial Woodpecker came even later and resulted in a similar fate. The probable extinction of two of North America’s largest and most charismatic birds has much to teach us regarding conservation efforts, especially as many other species face similar problems. In closely examining the history of the decline and causes of extinction of the Ivory-billed and Imperial woodpeckers, the authors offer explanations for the birds’ demise and strategies for future conservation and research efforts that focus mainly on the deadly, though largely understated, role of human depredations.
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Trogons: a natural history of the Trogonidae.
Artist/Author: Forshaw, Joseph M.$250.00 Add to cartThis is a definitive natural history of the spectacularly beautiful tropical birds known as the Trogons, a family that includes the legendary Resplendent quetzal, the sacred bird of the ancient Mayans and Aztecs. A collaboration between renowned ornithologist Joseph Forshaw and eminent bird artist Albert Gilbert, Trogons combines science and art to create an unprecedented picture of a threatened bird family. Forshaw’s text provides the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the trogons ever written, and Gilbert’s stunning paintings are the first to accurately depict all species of trogons in their natural habitats and true colours. The print run is small.
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Cuckoos: Cuculidae.
Artist/Author: Payne, Robert.$267.00 Add to cartPrint on demand title. Part of the Bird families of the world series. The author presents a new evolutionary history of the cuckoo family based on molecular genetics. There is much original material including previously unpublished field observations and song comparisons identifying new species. The book is divided into two parts: part one has eleven chapters devoted to cuckoo biology, part two covers all cuckoo species and their life histories.
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The Takahe: fifty years of conservation management and research.
Artist/Author: Lee, William G. and Ian G. Jamieson, editors.$40.00 Add to cartFor more than fifty years attempts to conserve the Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri), a large, flightless, herbivorous bird, have pioneered techniques for managing protected natural areas, habitat manipulation, captive rearing, wild releases, and island translocations.
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Toucans, barbets, and honeyguides: Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae.
Artist/Author: Short, Lester L. and Jennifer F. M. Horne.$267.00 Add to cartThis title is not held in stock but we are happy to supply on special order. Please contact us. A volume from the Bird families of the world series. Covers the life, history, relationships, biology, and conservation of 34 species of toucans, 84 barbets and 17 honeyguides. The book is divided into two sections: the first is a biological overview of the groups covering the key aspects of their behaviours and ecology. The second section is devoted to individual species accounts and gives plumage descriptions, field characters including voice, distribution, habits and life cycle.
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Swifts: a guide to the swifts and treeswifts of the world.
Artist/Author: Chantler, Phil and Gerald Driessens.$105.00 Add to cartThe comprehensive text has a strong emphasis on identification and distribution, but also includes information on habitat, voice, habits and breeding. The species’ descriptions are very detailed, range maps included for each species.
