Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Eagles written by Mike Unwin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviours of our favourite animals with eye-catching, colour photography and informative expert text. Eagles are among the most impressive hunters of the animal world. Their predatory prowess and flying skills have imbued them with a romance and mystique that runs deep in our culture and has elevated them to emblems of freedom and power across the globe. At the same time, however, people have long seen eagles as competitors. Reviled by farmers and gamekeepers as snatchers of livestock, many species have been driven into decline by persecution and disturbance. Two species of eagle occur in Britain - among 60 worldwide - and are the focus of this book. The regal Golden Eagle is the definitive 'true' eagle and occurs in wilderness areas across the northern hemisphere; the even larger White-tailed Eagle, reintroduced to the UK after historic extinction, belongs to the separate 'sea eagles' genus. These two spectacular birds are both very rare – confined largely to the remote Scottish Highlands – and a sighting of either is one of the UK's most exciting and sought-after wildlife experiences. This highly readable study looks separately at both UK eagles, exploring how each is adapted as an apex predator in its own environment, and explores the relationship between the two. Separate chapters cover all aspects of the birds' biology and lifestyle, from defending their vast territories to raising their young. Fascinating secrets are revealed, including the brutal truth behind 'Cain and Abel' syndrome. The book also takes a look at other eagles around the world, placing the two UK species within this broader context. Finally, it examines the complex relationship that humans have enjoyed with eagles since time immemorial, spanning both culture and conservation, and offers expert tips on where and how you can watch these magnificent birds for yourself.
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Ospreys written by Tim Mackrill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight: Ospreys is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos, and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist. A hunting Osprey is one of the great sights of the natural world, and its fishing prowess is admired and revered around the globe. However, its penchant for taking fish from trout ponds resulted in a drastic decline in the UK with the species wiped out by human persecution and habitat loss. Thanks to concerted conservation efforts, it has made an encouraging comeback in recent decades, giving people across the country the chance to see this majestic hunter in action once again. This easy-to-read text explores all aspects of the Osprey's biology and ecology, including a detailed overview of the adaptations that make it such a skilled and proficient hunter. There is also a chapter dedicated to Osprey migration with a summary of the findings of groundbreaking satellite tracking research. Tim Mackrill also explores the relationship between humans and Ospreys, from the days of Shakespeare to the recent rise of Osprey tourism. The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite animals with eye-catching colour photographs and informative expert text.
Download or read book The Pocket Book of Bird Anatomy written by Marianne Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a bird? To answer that, we must understand how birds are different from all other living things and how they fit into the diversity of life on Earth. This excellent RSPB guide to bird anatomy looks at the avian body, system by system, how it evolved, and how it functions. Chapters explore traits that are unique to birds, including their remarkable one-way breathing cycle, their trimmed-down skeleton, how feathers permit flight, provide weather-proofing and add beauty, and the avian bill – a lightweight replacement for both teeth and food-handling forelimbs. Each chapter tackles a particular body system and includes detailed anatomical illustrations, from cells and organs to skeletons and muscles, to show how birds' anatomical adaptations enable all their physical feats and fascinating behaviour. Feature spreads offer more in-depth analysis on topics like birdsong, temperature control, ornamentation, unusual diets, social behaviour, nocturnal adaptations, mutation and natural selection. Featuring more than 300 diagrams and colour photos, this fascinating new book also looks at the human impact on the avian world and reveals how behaviour and anatomy work together to produce these vibrant living beings that delight and inspire us so much.
Download or read book RSPB ID Spotlight Coastal Birds written by Marianne Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Wildlife. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reliable, attractive fold-out identification chart illustrating 50 of Britain's coastal bird species. This RSPB-licensed ID guide features 100 artworks illustrating 50 of Britain's best known coastal birds, including summer and wintering species. Artworks are printed on one side of the fold-out chart with species grouped taxonomically and helpfully labelled to assist with species identification. On the reverse of the artworks, informative and engaging text is provided on the featured species, as well as tips on the best reserves and pelagic trips for watching seabirds. Threats facing our coastal bird species are outlined with advice on what we can do to help to reduce plastic waste or overfishing in our seas. Breeding numbers are also detailed highlighting the UK's largest breeding colonies where we can see spectacular views of seabirds in summer.
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Ducks and Geese written by Marianne Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight: Ducks and Geese is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos, and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist. This is a detailed 'biography' of ducks and geese that breed in or regularly visit the UK – covering 30 species in all. It will include chapters on the evolution of ducks and geese, their place in the natural world, their anatomy and physiology, various feeding methods, spectacular courtship displays and diverse breeding behaviour. Marianne Taylor reveals their often epic migrations and examine their social interactions with their own and other species, including their unusual readiness to hybridise. She also details their relationships with humankind over the centuries, including their presence in folklore and literature and their role in our lives as both prey and pets. She explores their presence as feral and sometimes invasive species outside their natural ranges, and their current status within their native wild ranges as the group includes several species recently recognised as being of global conservation concern.
Download or read book RSPB Handbook of British Birds written by Peter Holden and published by Bloomsbury Wildlife. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling RSPB Handbook of British Birds is the most comprehensive reference for birdwatchers of all levels of interest and experience. Now in its fifth edition, it remains the most accessible field guide to more than 300 bird species likely to be encountered in Britain and Ireland. Alongside artworks depicting all common plumages, the detailed text describes each bird's behaviour, habitat, voice, breeding biology, longevity and seasonal movements, as well as other useful information. The guide also includes UK population trends and up-to-date distribution maps. Completely revised and updated, this fifth edition also features new artwork and comparison spreads, additional rarities, the most recent taxonomic order, as well as each species' conservation status, a summary of the threats UK species are currently facing and details of what conservationists are doing to help.
Download or read book RSPB British Birds of Prey written by Marianne Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a celebration of British raptors (including owls), with 200 stunning colour photographs. An authoritative text examines the biology and ecology of each species, following their fortunes as British breeding birds from historical times to the present day. This book serves as a showcase of these fabulous birds and highlights the diverse work of the RSPB in ensuring their survival.
Download or read book Bird Sense written by Tim Birkhead and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Birds of the Horn of Africa written by Nigel Redman and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first field guide to the birds of this varied and fascinating region and a companion to Birds of East Africa by two of the same authors.
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Snakes written by Jules Howard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight: Snakes is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos, and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist. Snakes are superbly secretive reptiles, celebrated by many for their highly tuned senses and their complex and mysterious seasonal behaviours. Though some people may be fearful of them, these important reptiles play a crucial role in many habitats. And an encounter with any one of our native snake species is an experience worth cherishing. In Spotlight Snakes, Jules Howard takes readers on a journey through the ecology and lifestyle of Britain's three native snake species: the Barred Grass Snake, the Smooth Snake and our only venomous snake species, the Adder. As well as uncovering their unique hunting styles and courtship rituals, he delves into the myths and legends at the heart of humankind's widespread and sometimes troublesome fascination with these animals. He also charts the conservation challenges our native snakes face in the modern age and explores the solutions conservationists are employing to help these extraordinary predators remain a vital part of British ecosystems for generations to come. The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite animals with eye-catching colour photographs and informative expert text.
Download or read book RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds written by Marianne Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Wildlife. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compact, lightweight and informative guide to 310 of the most common birds found in the UK. RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds is a compact, lightweight and informative field guide, featuring 310 bird species regularly seen in the UK. Species are illustrated in all distinct plumage forms likely to be observed in the wild by renowned bird artist Stephen Message, and a detailed distribution map for the British Isles is also provided. Concise text covers appearance, behaviour and voice – focusing on key identification points – and also outlines where you will find the species, describes its seasonal movements and includes the latest UK population data. Finally, confusion species are cross-referenced, with their most important and easily noted differences from the subject species described. A comprehensive introduction provides a guide on how and where to find birds, and how to make the most useful and rewarding observations for newcomers to birdwatching. Uniquely, this guide also provides images and descriptions for not only a selection of rarer visitors, but also for a range of domestic species and certain commonly observed aberrant forms of more familiar birds, all of which are omitted from most field guides but can cause great confusion for beginners when encountered in the wild.
Download or read book Wolf Empire written by Scott Ian Barry and published by . This book was released on 2016-03-13 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, from award-winning photographer Scott Ian Barry comes Wolf Empire--the most comprehensive and stunning visual record of wolves ever published in black-and-white photography. Barry s photographs show wolves for the individuals they are, a species as diverse as humans. In this world of fur and teeth, texture and shape, light and shadow, Barry creates a highly intimate look at wolves and their often mystifying way of life."
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Kingfishers written by David Chandler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight Kingfishers is packed with eye-catching, informative color photos and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist.
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Crows written by Mike Unwin and published by Bloomsbury Wildlife. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight Crows is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist. In Spotlight Crows, Mike Unwin looks at the biology and ecology of all eight UK corvids and investigates why these birds have become deeply embedded in our culture, from children's rhymes and Norse mythology to Shakespeare's plays and the poems of Edgar Allen Poe. Most of the UK's crow species--carrion crow, hooded crow, rook, jackdaw, raven, chough, magpie and jay--are very familiar birds to urban householder and countryside dweller alike. Together they make up the Corvidae family, and they have been deeply intertwined in our lives and culture since prehistoric times. However, familiarity often breeds contempt, and crows--also known as corvids--have long attracted a bad press. Reviled as raiders of crops, feeders on carrion, thieves of jewelry and bullies of smaller birds, crows have often found themselves on the wrong end of a shotgun. Yet the more we learn about them, the more fascinating they become. Behind the behavior some find objectionable lie exceptional intelligence and resourcefulness. These qualities have long captivated scientists and excited the admiration of anyone who takes the time to know crows better.
Download or read book The Osprey written by Tim Mackrill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-29 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly readable Poyser monograph on one of the most widespread raptors. The Osprey is a large, fish-eating bird of prey. Distinctively marked in deep brown and white, with a piercing yellow eye and powerful hooked bill, the Osprey snatches its prey in spectacular swoops above lakes and wetlands around the world it is one of the most widespread of all birds. Persecuted mercilessly in Britain, it became extinct in the 1890s before returning to the famous Loch Garten in Scotland in the 1950s. The return of the bird has been slow, but reintroduction programmes elsewhere notably at Rutland Water have been successful, and this remarkable raptor is an increasingly common sight in our skies. This Poyser monograph is dedicated to this fine species and includes more than 150 colour photographs. The Osprey looks at the distribution, foraging ecology, migration, breeding behaviour and population dynamics of this spectacular bird, with emphasis placed on conservation efforts both in Britain and in the species' African haunts, which have been discovered only very recently thanks to advances in satellite tagging technology.
Download or read book RSPB Spotlight Swifts and Swallows written by Mike Unwin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RSPB Spotlight: Swifts and Swallows is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos, and features succinct, detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist. People all over Britain and Europe have long welcomed the arrival of swifts and swallows as a promise of summer being just around the corner. And with their similar long wings and dashing flight, it is perhaps understandable that we often confuse the two birds. After all, they have much in common: both feed on flying insects, both breed around buildings, and both are long-distance migrants that spend winter in Africa. But appearances can be deceptive. Swifts and swallows are completely unrelated birds that have adapted through evolution to survive in similar ways. In Spotlight: Swifts and Swallows, Mike Unwin reveals their fascinating lifestyles, explains how and why they have acquired their similarities, and ways in which we can help protect them. The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite animals with eye-catching colour photography and informative expert text.
