Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Sep 14, 2018
Jun 1, 2017
May 1, 2017
Jan 2, 2017
Aug 3, 2016
Feb 5, 2015
Hummingbirds - Ronald Orenstein
Summary: "A visual feast of beautiful images and a comprehensive natural history of a unique and remarkable bird family."--P. [4] of cover.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
This perfect coffee table book captures the dazzling and fascinating world of the remarkable hovering bird unique to the Americas. Author Ronald Orenstein, a zoologist, lawyer and wild life conservationist, explains in layman's terms many characteristics of hummingbirds, from ?ight and feeding techniques to migrations and mating patterns. There are more than 340 species of hummingbirds divided into seven groupings with illustrative names like Mangoes, Coquettes, Brilliants, Mountain Gems, Bees, Emerald and Giant. Readers will learn about their diverse habitat, unique metabolisms, courtship prowess and near mythical attraction in pre-Columbian lore of the Americas, and may be surprised to discover that hummingbirds while resting enter a state of hibernation-like torpor to conserve body heat. The spectacular photography of Michael and Patricia Fogden reveals the diversity, beautiful colors and movement of these unique birds. They successfully captured images of the speedy birds in ?ight, perched, nesting, feeding and, in an exceptional set of photographs, even escaping the fangs of a viper. Although extremely resilient and adaptive, the hummingbird environment is often threatened by development and deforestation and the final chapter focuses on these issues. (Sept.)
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Sep 1, 2012
Big year - Mark Obmascik
Summary: Follows the 1998 Big Year competition between Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller, during which the three rivals risked their lives to set a new North American birding record. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
There is a well-known competition among birders called the Big Year, in which one abandons one's regular life for one whole year in order to see more species of birds in a geographic area than one's competitors. Environmental journalist Obmascik follows the 1998 Big Year's three main competitors--a New Jersey roofing contractor, a corporate executive, and a software engineer--as they crisscross the country in search of birds. Whether looking for flamingos in the Everglades, great grey owls in the frozen bogs near Duluth, or Asian rarities on the Aleutian island of Attu, these obsessed birders not only faced seasickness, insects, altitude sickness, and going into debt, they also faced each other. Their drive to win propelled all three past the rarified count of 700 species seen, and the winner saw an extraordinary 745 species--a number that will probably never be equaled. With a blend of humor and awe, Obmascik takes the reader into the heart of competitive birding, and in the process turns everyone into birders. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2004)) Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.
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Jun 1, 2010
Birdology - Sy Montgomery
Birdology : Lessons from a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur - Montgomery, Sy
Summary: Combines popular science with personal anecdotes as the author describes her encounters with a range of avian personalities from various parts of the world. - (Baker & Taylor)
Staff Review
This terrific book, by the same author as "The good, good, pig", was fascinating. Who knew that when I'm feeding jays peanuts by hand that I actually have a dinosaur in my hand! Sy Montgomery is a fantastic naturalist who has been researching her subject since childhood, and shares with us her amazing knowledge.
May 3, 2010
Crow planet: essential wisdom from the urban wilderness - Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Crow planet: essential wisdom from the urban wilderness - Haupt, Lyanda Lynn
Summary: A scholarly tribute to crow life and mythology explains how increasing crow populations are reflecting various ecological imbalances while providing opportunities to connect with the animal world.
Kirkus Reviews
A self-described posthippie ecofeminist offers a quiet, genial book of "hopeful possibility" amid the current ecological crisis. Wildlife researcher and rehabilitator Haupt (Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks, 2006, etc.) writes gracefully about the interactions between crows and humans in the urban landscape and what those interactions portend for the future of the zoöpolis (where human and animal geographies overlap). For most people, notes the author, crows are the most commonly encountered native wild animal. Her fascination with the unusually intelligent birds began after a long depressive funk. One day she looked out her study window, saw an injured fledgling perched on an electrical wire and took the bird in. While nursing it back to health, she began to feel better. Haupt then spent two years studying the shiny black songbirds in her backyard and neighborhood. Found in growing numbers—there are more than 30 million in the United States—in densely populated towns and suburbs, the omnivorous American Crow thrives on the detritus of modern urban life, consuming everything from road kill to bread crumbs, bagels and McDonald's fries. The author discovered that watching the creatures mate, nest, forage and help one another encouraged a necessary awareness of the continuity between human lives and that of other species. Like her beloved Thoreau—who wrote, "There is no wildness distant from ourselves"—Haupt celebrates the interconnectedness of all life and urges readers to pay close attention to their home places. The chapter on the habits of amateur urban naturalists is a neat how-to guide for anyone interested in learning how the wild, nonhuman animals around us live. Even though we are unable to view our entire planet, she writes, we can take positive action by cultivating a sense of wonder at the wildlife at our door: "We practice wonder by resisting the temptation to hurry past things worth seeing." A fresh take on conscious living in the everyday world. Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
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