Download or read book The Mating Lives of Birds written by James Parry and published by Bloomsbury Wildlife. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bird courtship and display can be one of the most captivating events in the natural world. This book looks at natural selection and why birds have evolved different reproduction strategies, examining territories, birdsong, displays and dealing with rivals.
Download or read book The Love Lives of Birds written by Laura Erickson and published by Storey Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ornithologist Laura Erickson combines her bird expertise with a touch of romance writing in this exploration of the courtship and mating rituals of 35 bird species, from the tiny ruby-throated hummingbird to the mighty great blue heron.
Download or read book Bird Love written by Wenfei Tong and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunningly illustrated look at the mating and parenting lives of the world's birds Bird Love looks at the extraordinary range of mating systems in the avian world, exploring all the stages from courtship and nest-building to protecting eggs and raising chicks. It delves into the reasons why some species, such as the wattled jacana, rely on males to do all the childcare, while others, such as cuckoos and honeyguides, dump their eggs in the nests of others to raise. For some birds, reciprocal promiscuity pays off: both male and female dunnocks will rear the most chicks by mating with as many partners as possible. For others, long-term monogamy is the only way to ensure their offspring survive. The book explores the wide variety of ways birds make sure they find a mate in the first place, including how many male birds employ elaborate tactics to show how sexy they are. Gathering in leks to display to females, they dance, pose, or parade to sell their suitability as a mate. Other birds attract a partner with their building skills: female bowerbirds rate brains above beauty, so males construct elaborate bowers with twig avenues and cleared courtyards to impress them. Looking at the differing levels of parenting skills across species around the world, we see why a tenth of bird species, including the fairy-wrens of Australia, have helpers at the nest who forgo their own reproduction to assist the breeding pair; how brood parasites and their hosts have engaged in evolutionary arms races; and how monogamous pairs share—or relinquish—their responsibilities. Illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs, Bird Love is a celebration of the global diversity of avian reproductive strategies.
Download or read book Evolutionary Ecology of Birds written by Head of Biodiversity and Macroecology and Senior Research Fellow Peter M Bennett and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2002 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birds show bewildering diversity in their life histories, mating systems and risk of extinction. Why do albatrosses delay reproduction for the first 12 years of their life while zebra finches breed in their first year ? Why are fairy-wrens so sexually promiscuous while swans show lifelongmonogamy? Why are over a quarter of parrot species threatened with global extinction while woodpeckers and cuckoos remain secure? Some of these topics, such as delayed onset of breeding in seabirds, are classic problems in evolutionary ecology, while others have arisen in the last decade, such as genetic mating systems and extinction. Birds offer a unique opportunity for investigating these questions because they areexceptionally well-studied in the wild. By employing phylogenetic comparative methods and a database of up to 3,000 species, the authors identify the ecological and evolutionary basis of many of these intriguing questions. They also highlight remaining puzzles and identify a series of challenges forfuture investigation. This is the most comprehensive reappraisal of avian diversity since David Lack's classic "Ecological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds". It is also the most extensive application of modern comparative methods yet undertaken. This novel approach demonstrates how an evolutionary perspective canreveal the general ecological processes that underpin contemporary avian diversity on a global scale.
Download or read book Birds in Love written by Jean Léveillé and published by MBI Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A natural history of the secret love life of birds; this book chronicles the courtship behavior of 30 species, from loons to hummingbirds to ostriches.
Download or read book The Life of Birds written by David Attenborough and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2023-11-09 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully updated new edition of David Attenborough’s bestselling classic.
Download or read book Behavioral Ecology of Tropical Birds written by Bridget J.M. Stutchbury and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2022-09-28 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behavioral Ecology of Tropical Birds, Second Edition provides the most updated and comprehensive review on the evolution of behavior in tropical landbirds. The book reviews gaps in our knowledge that were identified twenty years ago when the first edition was published, highlights recent discoveries that have filled those gaps, and identifies new areas in urgent need of study. It covers key topics, including timing of breeding, movement ecology, life history traits, slow vs. fast pace of life, mating systems, mate choice, territoriality, communication, biotic interactions, and conservation. Written by international experts on the behavior of tropical birds, the book explores why the tropics is a unique natural laboratory to study the evolution of bird behavior and why temperate zone species are so different. A recent surge of studies on tropical birds has helped to reduce the temperate zone bias that arose because most avian model species in behavioral ecology were adapted to northern temperate climates. This is an important resource for researchers, ecologists and conservationists who want to understand the rich and complex evolutionary history of avian behavior. Includes examples from around the world Provides a historical perspective on new knowledge in the past 20 years Identifies knowledge gaps that have been filled, along with new gaps that have emerged Explores how avian behavior in the tropics is related to conservation
Download or read book Monogamy written by Ulrich H. Reichard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-11 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the biological roots of social, sexual and reproductive monogamy in birds, mammals and humans.
Download or read book How Birds Evolve written by Douglas J. Futuyma and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A marvelous journey into the world of bird evolution How Birds Evolve explores how evolution has shaped the distinctive characteristics and behaviors we observe in birds today. Douglas Futuyma describes how evolutionary science illuminates the wonders of birds, ranging over topics such as the meaning and origin of species, the evolutionary history of bird diversity, and the evolution of avian reproductive behaviors, plumage ornaments, and social behaviors. In this multifaceted book, Futuyma examines how birds evolved from nonavian dinosaurs and reveals what we can learn from the "family tree" of birds. He looks at the ways natural selection enables different forms of the same species to persist, and discusses how adaptation by natural selection accounts for the diverse life histories of birds and the rich variety of avian parenting styles, mating displays, and cooperative behaviors. He explains why some parts of the planet have so many more species than others, and asks what an evolutionary perspective brings to urgent questions about bird extinction and habitat destruction. Along the way, Futuyma provides an insider's perspective on how biologists practice evolutionary science, from studying the fossil record to comparing DNA sequences among and within species. A must-read for bird enthusiasts and curious naturalists, How Birds Evolve shows how evolutionary biology helps us better understand birds and their natural history, and how the study of birds has informed all aspects of evolutionary science since the time of Darwin.
Download or read book Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds written by Walter D. Koenig and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-22 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cooperative breeders are species in which more than a pair of individuals assist in the production of young. Cooperative breeding is found in only a few hundred bird species world-wide, and understanding this often strikingly altruistic behaviour has remained an important challenge in behavioural ecology for over 30 years. This book highlights the theoretical, empirical and technical advances that have taken place in the field of cooperative breeding research since the publication of the seminal work Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Long-term Studies of Behavior and Ecology (1990, HB ISBN 0521 372984, PB ISBN 0521 378907). Organized conceptually, special attention is given to ways in which cooperative breeders have proved fertile subjects for testing modern advances to classic evolutionary problems including those of sexual selection, sex-ratio manipulation, life-history evolution, partitioning of reproduction and incest avoidance. It will be of interest to both students and researchers interested in behaviour and ecology.
Download or read book Handbook of Bird Biology written by Irby J. Lovette and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-06-27 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Forbes.com as one of the 12 best books about birds and birding in 2016 This much-anticipated third edition of the Handbook of Bird Biology is an essential and comprehensive resource for everyone interested in learning more about birds, from casual bird watchers to formal students of ornithology. Wherever you study birds your enjoyment will be enhanced by a better understanding of the incredible diversity of avian lifestyles. Arising from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology and authored by a team of experts from around the world, the Handbook covers all aspects of avian diversity, behaviour, ecology, evolution, physiology, and conservation. Using examples drawn from birds found in every corner of the globe, it explores and distills the many scientific discoveries that have made birds one of our best known - and best loved - parts of the natural world. This edition has been completely revised and is presented with more than 800 full color images. It provides readers with a tool for life-long learning about birds and is suitable for bird watchers and ornithology students, as well as for ecologists, conservationists, and resource managers who work with birds. The Handbook of Bird Biology is the companion volume to the Cornell Lab’s renowned distance learning course, Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology.
Download or read book Cooperative Breeding in Birds written by Peter B. Stacey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-04-19 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cooperative breeding is an unusual kind of social behaviour, found in a few hundred species worldwide, in which individuals other than the parents help raise young. Understanding the apparently altruistic behaviour of helpers has provided numerous challenges to evolutionary biologists. This book includes detailed first-hand summaries of many of the major empirical studies of cooperatively breeding birds. It provides comparative information on the demography, social behaviour and behavioural ecology of these unusual species and explores the diversity of ideas and the controversies which have developed in this field. The studies are all long-term and consequently the book summarises some of the most extensive studies of the behaviour of marked individuals ever undertaken. Graduate students and research workers in ornithology, sociobiology, behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology will find much of value in this book.
Download or read book The Nesting Season written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world’s great naturalists and nature writers, Bernd Heinrich shows us how the sensual beauty of birds can open our eyes to a hidden evolutionary process.
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 Vesper Flights written by Helen Macdonald and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this “dazzling” essay collection (Wall Street Journal). In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Download or read book The Living Bird written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn what America's most venerable ornithological institution has discovered about birds in its past 100 years of study.
Download or read book Must See Birds of the Pacific Northwest written by Sarah Swanson and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Must-See Birds of the Pacific Northwest is a lively, practical guide that helps readers discover 85 of the region’s most extraordinary birds. Each bird profile includes notes on what they eat, where they migrate from, and where to find them in Washington and Oregon. Profiles also include stunning color photographs of each bird. Birds are grouped by what they are known for or where they are most likely to be found—like beach birds, urban birds, colorful birds, and killer birds. This is an accessible guide for casual birders, weekend warriors, and families looking for an outdoor experience. Eight easy-going birding weekends, including stops in Puget Sound, the Central Washington wine country, and the Klamath Basin, offer wonderful getaway ideas and make this a must-have guide for locals and visitors alike.
