Bird Love

Bird Love PDF Author: Wenfei Tong
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208905
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
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.

Bird Love

Bird Love PDF Author: Wenfei Tong
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208905
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Get Book

Book Description
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.

The Love Lives of Birds

The Love Lives of Birds PDF Author: Laura Erickson
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1635862760
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
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.

Life With Birds

Life With Birds PDF Author: Bronwyn Rennex
Publisher: Upswell
ISBN: 1743822456
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A luminous account of largely unrecognised experiences in the aftermath of war. This is not a war story about heroism or healing trauma, but an attempt to fill the gaps in a family story in the wake of the Vietnam War and re-animate a father never really known. Life with Birds invests in the small scale, the domestic and the ordinary as an overlooked part of Australian military history. Bronwyn Rennex has used whatever materials she could find in order to attempt to retrieve her father - family stories, love letters, legal documents, birds - and the gaps between these documents form perhaps the most important part of this story: a failure that describes a loss. Rather than describing her mother's grief at her father's death, Rennex uses love letters and her mother's written claim for a war widow's pension to map the shape of her mother's love and loss. Told in fragments and mixing speculation, imagination and guesswork, the narrative is personal, angry, political and also funny, balancing a desire for some form of testimony with a commitment to questioning how we talk about war. This is a poignant and compelling account of largely unrecognised experiences in the aftermath of war.

Lives of North American Birds

Lives of North American Birds PDF Author: Kenn Kaufman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618159888
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 708

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Book Description
The bestselling natural history of birds, lavishly illustrated with 600 colorphotos, is now available for the first time in flexi binding.

Life List

Life List PDF Author: Olivia Gentile
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819146X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
After her four kids were nearly grown and she was about to turn 50, Phoebe Snetsinger was told she had less than a year to live. Snetsinger, a St. Louis housewife and avid backyard birder, decided to spend that year traveling the world in search of birds. As it turned out, her doctors were wrong, but Phoebe's passion had been ignited and she spent the next eighteen years crisscrossing the globe recklessly staking out her quarry. En route she contracted malaria in Zambia, nearly fell to her death in Zaire, and was kidnapped and gang raped on the outskirts of Port Moresby. Yet none of this curbed her enthusiasm. By the time she died in a bus accident while birding in Madagascar in 1999, Phoebe was world renowned and had seen more species-8,500 of the roughly 10,000-than anyone in history. A fascinating portrait of a hobbiest whose obsession contributed to both her success and her demise, Life List brings Phoebe Snetsinger and the wild world of amatuer ornithology to vivid life.

The Birding Life

The Birding Life PDF Author: Larry Sheehan
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
ISBN: 030771635X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
A book with 200 full-color photos and a series of anecdotes shows how bird enthusiasts showcase their love of birds in and around their homes. By the author of Living With Dogs.

Private Lives of Garden Birds

Private Lives of Garden Birds PDF Author: Calvin Simonds
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1612121993
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Brimming with stories, wisdom, and expert knowledge, this delightful book gives enthusiasts a peek into the private worlds of eleven North American birds: swallows, blue jays, chickadees, song sparrows, house sparrows, phoebes, mockingbirds, crows, red-winged blackbirds, robins, and hummingbirds. Calvin Simonds shows you how to really observe these birds -- how to interpret the caws of crows, recognize blue jays from their facial markings, understand the flight patterns of swallows. You'll be enthralled as you eavesdrop on a group of sparrows trading songs in a "hootenanny," feel the dry grip of a chickadee's claws on your fingers, tramp through a summer meadow to visit a phoebe, and much more.

Life-Size Birds

Life-Size Birds PDF Author: Nancy J. Hajeski
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 164517915X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
An up-close look at the diverse array of bird species from every habitat in North America. John James Audubon would be proud to know a life-size bird book still exists in the 21st century. Ninety-five North American species of our feathered friends are contained herein, offering a detailed look at their size, habitat, distribution, and more. Fun facts pepper the pages, and beautiful photographs of their varied plumage accompany each avian. More detailed information on nests, eggs, and migrations appear on featured spreads, and a removable 17” x 21” poster is included. Get an up-close, personal look at the stunning variety of birds that can be found across the entire continent!

Bless the Birds

Bless the Birds PDF Author: Susan J. Tweit
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 1647420377
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Writer Susan Tweit and her economist-turned-sculptor husband Richard Cabe had just settled into their version of a “good life” when Richard saw thousands of birds one day—harbingers of the brain cancer that would kill him two years later. This compelling and intimate memoir chronicles their journey into the end of his life, framed by their final trip together, a 4,000-mile-long delayed honeymoon road trip. As Susan and Richard navigate the unfamiliar territory of brain cancer treatment and learn a whole new vocabulary—craniotomies, adjuvant chemotherapy, and brain geography—they also develop new routines for a mindful existence, relying on each other and their connection to nature, including the real birds Richard enjoys watching. Their determination to walk hand in hand, with open hearts, results in profound and difficult adjustments in their roles. Bless the Birds is not a sad story. It is both prayer and love song, a guide to how to thrive in a world where all we hold dear seems to be eroding, whether simple civility and respect, our health and safety, or the Earth itself. It’s an exploration of living with love in a time of dying—whether personal or global—with humor, unflinching courage, and grace. And it is an invitation to choose to live in light of what we love, rather than what we fear.

The Birds in My Life

The Birds in My Life PDF Author: The Supreme Master Ching Hai
Publisher: The Supreme Master Ching Hai Publishing Co Ltd.
ISBN: 9866895149
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
In this beautifully illustrated book, Master Ching Hai lovingly writes about each one of Her feathered friend's unique biography, complemented by life-like photographs and captions filled with amusing telepathic exchanges between Master and bird. As one views these colorful vibrant beings among the trees and flowers, singing their love for God, one feels a soulful retreat from the daily grind of the urban jungle. Simply opening this book of Master Ching Hai, instantly brings forth a magical forest animated with birds and flowers. Twenty-three beautiful feathered beings, frequently seen nestling in the Master's arms, brings Her endless joy. She is often moved by their words and actions and is greatly inspired by them as well. Master Ching Hai pleasantly surprises the reader by revealing that inside these God's creations are very highly developed souls whose love know no boundaries.