Download or read book The Behavior of Texas Birds written by Kent Rylander and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether it's the sudden, plunging dives of Brown Pelicans, the singing and aerial displays of Northern Mockingbirds, or the communal nesting of Purple Martins, innate and learned behaviors are some of the most fascinating things to observe in Texas birds. Even casual birdwatchers eventually ask, "why do they do that?" while serious birders and ornithologists seek to understand all the behaviors involved in feeding, flying, mating, and rearing young. But until now, it has been hard to find this information in one handy source. In this comprehensive, yet easy-to-use book, Kent Rylander distills data from many sources to provide an authoritative guide to the behavior of Texas birds. He begins by explaining the principles of animal behavior and illustrating how they can be applied to interpreting bird behaviors in the field. The majority of the book is devoted to accounts of more than 400 species of birds that are most likely to be encountered by Texas birdwatchers. Each account describes such behaviors as feeding, courtship, parenting, and other behaviors that are significant for that species. References to interesting and important articles from scientific journals are incorporated in the species accounts where appropriate, and line drawings illustrate some of the behaviors described.
Download or read book Book of Texas Birds written by Gary Clark and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 762 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the knowledge and insight gained from a lifetime of watching, studying, and enjoying birds, this book is full of information about more than four hundred species of birds in Texas, most all of which author Gary Clark has seen first hand. Organized in the standard taxonomic order familiar to most birders, the book is written in a conversational tone that yields a wide-ranging discussion of each bird’s life history as well as an intimate look at some of its special characteristics and habits. Information regarding each species’ diet, voice, and nest is included as well as when and where it can be found in Texas. Magnificent photographs by Kathy Adams Clark accompany each bird’s entry. For those just beginning to watch birds to those who can fully relate to the experiences and sentiments communicated here by a veteran birder, this book reveals the kind of personal connection to nature that careful attention to the birds around us can inspire.
Download or read book Book of Birds written by John Faaborg and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-11 with total page 781 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Book of Birds: Introduction to Ornithology, John Faaborg, renowned expert on avian ecology and conservation, brings a fresh and accessible sensibility to the study of ornithology. In this beautifully illustrated volume, Faaborg’s approachable writing style will engage students and birders alike while introducing them to the study of the evolution, taxonomy, anatomy, physiology, diversity, and behavior of birds. With its unique focus on ecology, the text emphasizes birds’ relationships with the environment and other species while showing the amazing diversity of avian life. Faaborg pays special attention to the roles that competition, community structure, and reproductive behavior play in the astonishingly varied and interesting lives of birds seen around the world. He discusses variations in anatomy, morphology, and behavior; explains why such vast diversity exists; and explores the ways in which different birds can share the same spaces. Artist Claire Faaborg brings the science behind this diversity to life through her unique, hand-drawn artwork throughout the book. Combining vibrant visuals and knowledgeable insights, Book of Birds offers readers a firm foundation in the field of ornithology and an invaluable resource for understanding birds from an ecological and evolutionary perspective.
Download or read book Backyard Birds of Georgia written by Bill Fenimore and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2009-03 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BACKYARD BIRDS IS AN EXCITING SERIES of books that explores the top twenty-five backyard birds most commonly found in each state. It includes a profiled size scale that allows the reader to quickly identify the correct bird, and each bird entry is accompanied by a stunning color photograph and specific description, including identification marks, behavior, habitat, and nesting style-even the song the bird makes! As an added feature, author Bill Fenimore also provides expert tips for building the ultimate backyard bird sanctuary, from creating birdbaths and planting proper foliage to offering a bird's favorite foods.
Download or read book The Bird Way written by Jennifer Ackerman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. “There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries –– What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species—ours—but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call—and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.
Download or read book The Minds of Birds written by Alexander Frank Skutch and published by Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural. This book was released on 1996 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His intimate, six-decade study of tropical and north temperate birds and his wide survey of the literature inform this remarkable review of the psychic life of birds.
Download or read book Birds of Texas Field Guide written by Stan Tekiela and published by Adventure Publications. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 875 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get the New Edition of Texas’s Best-Selling Bird Guide Learn to identify birds in Texas, and make bird watching even more enjoyable. With Stan Tekiela’s famous field guide, bird identification is simple and informative. There’s no need to look through dozens of photos of birds that don’t live in your area. This book features 170 species of Texas birds organized by color for ease of use. Do you see a yellow bird and don’t know what it is? Go to the yellow section to find out. Book Features: 170 species: Only Texas birds Simple color guide: See a yellow bird? Go to the yellow section Compare feature: Decide between look-alikes Stan’s Notes: Naturalist tidbits and facts Professional photos: Crisp, stunning full-page images This new edition includes more species, updated photographs and range maps, revised information, and even more of Stan’s expert insights. So grab Birds of Texas Field Guide for your next birding adventure—to help ensure that you positively identify the birds that you see.
Download or read book Hummingbirds of Texas written by Clifford Eugene Shackelford and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for a general audience, with spectacular images for birders and nature enthusiasts at every level, Hummingbirds of Texas: With Their New Mexico and Arizona Ranges reveals the enormous appeal of this tiniest and shiniest of birds. The book opens with a look at the many manifestations of the human attraction to these flying jewels, including the Hummingbird Roundup, a citizen-science project run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as well as the Rockport Fulton Hummer/Bird Celebration, one of several festivals dedicated to hummingbirds. The book also includes easy tips for attracting hummingbirds to your own lawn or garden, such as what to plant in the ground or in pots and how to choose and take care of feeders. The authors then showcase the nineteen different hummingbird species that have appeared in the region covered by the book. Magnificent color photographs and original artwork aid in identification and accompany descriptions, range maps, and abundance graphs for each species.
Download or read book The Sibley Guide to Bird Life Behavior written by David Allen Sibley and published by Alfred a Knopf Incorporated. This book was released on 2009 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides basic information about the biology, life cycles, and behavior of birds, along with brief profiles of each of the eighty bird families in North America.
Download or read book What the Robin Knows written by Jon Young and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How understanding bird language and behavior can help us to see more wildlife.
Download or read book The Eastern Screech Owl written by Frederick R. Gehlbach and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eastern screech owl, widespread over the eastern half of North America and noticeably tolerant of human activity, is one of America's most familiar birds. Residing naturally in wooded environs with tree cavities, this owl lives well in suburbia and can be found nesting in mailboxes, porch columns, and purple martin houses. Based on a twenty-five-year study, biologist Frederick R. Gehlbach tells the life story of the eastern screech owl, focusing on case studies of suburban and rural study plots in Central Texas. This is the first thorough study of major life-history, behavioral, and ecological features of the species. Indeed, it is the first concurrent, comparative study of an urban and a rural population of any New World animal. Told in a personal voice, the story of these birds will interest all who have not lost touch with their ancestral world. However, Gehlbach has also included quantitative data and analysis of interest to ecologists, wildlife biologists, and ornithologists. Photographs (including color shots of the gray and rufous phases), figures, and tables provide further detail. Gehlbach's investigations have been those of not only an academic ecologist, but a suburbanite curious about his natural surroundings. The result is a model of research on species population dynamics and adaptation, yielding an emerging picture of what the eastern screech owl needs for successful coexistence with human neighbors.
Download or read book How to Know the Birds written by Ted Floyd and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this elegant narrative, celebrated naturalist Ted Floyd guides you through a year of becoming a better birder. Choosing 200 top avian species to teach key lessons, Floyd introduces a new, holistic approach to bird watching and shows how to use the tools of the 21st century to appreciate the natural world we inhabit together whether city, country or suburbs." -- From book jacket.
Download or read book Birdlife of the Gulf of Mexico written by Joanna Burger and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most important ecological regions in the world for birds. The mosaic of diverse habitats in the region provides numerous niches for birds. There are productive salt marshes, barrier islands, and sandy beaches for foraging and nesting; a direct pathway between North and Central and South America for migrating; and warm, tropical waters for wintering. Many species are residents all year around, some migrate through, and still others spend the winter along the shores. The Gulf Coast is home to a significant portion of the world’s population of Reddish Egret and Snowy Plover and a significant portion of the US breeding populations of certain birds, including the Sandwich Tern, Black Skimmer, and Laughing Gull. In total, there are more than 400 bird species that rely on the Gulf at some time during the year. Drawing on decades of fieldwork and data research, renowned ornithologist and behavioral ecologist Joanna Burger provides detailed descriptions of birdlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Burger records trends in bird population, behavior, and major threats and stressors affecting birds in the region, including the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. While some of this data exists in journal articles, research papers, and government reports, this is the first volume to weave together a comprehensive overview of the birds and related natural resources found in the Gulf of Mexico. Illustrated with over 900 color photographs, charts, and maps, this landmark reference volume will be immensely important for researchers, conservationists, land managers, birders, and wildlife lovers.
Download or read book Of Birds and Texas written by Stuart Gentling and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2001-11-15 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Audubon's "Birds of America" was the most magnificent ornithological publication of the 19th century, "Of Birds and Texas" may rightfully claim that honor for the 20th. A.C. Greene praised it as "the most stunning and prodigious book in Texas history (and possibly forever)." 50 color plates.
Download or read book The Thing with Feathers written by Noah Strycker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Strycker] thinks like a biologist but writes like a poet." -- Wall Street Journal An entertaining and profound look at the lives of birds, illuminating their surprising world—and deep connection with humanity. Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, the lifelong loves of albatrosses, and other mysteries—revealing why birds do what they do, and offering a glimpse into our own nature. Drawing deep from personal experience, cutting-edge science, and colorful history, Noah Strycker spins captivating stories about the birds in our midst and shares the startlingly intimate coexistence of birds and humans. With humor, style, and grace, he shows how our view of the world is often, and remarkably, through the experience of birds. You’ve never read a book about birds like this one.
Download or read book I d Rather Be Birding written by June Osborne and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: June Osborne would rather be birding than doing just about anything else. In this title, she leads readers through backyards and river bottoms savouring the colours, sounds and playful busy-ness of American Robins, Vermilion Flycatchers, Varied Thrushes and a hundred other feathered friends.
Download or read book Lives of North American Birds written by Kenn Kaufman and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1996 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling natural history of birds, lavishly illustrated with 600 colorphotos, is now available for the first time in flexi binding.
