Cuckoos Of The World

Author : Johannes Erritzøe,Clive F. Mann,Frederik Brammer,Richard A. Fuller
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2012-03-29
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781408142677

Get Book

Cuckoos of the World by Johannes Erritzøe,Clive F. Mann,Frederik Brammer,Richard A. Fuller Pdf

WINNER OF THE BIRDWATCH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2012 This authoritative handbook, part of the Helm Identification Guides series, looks in detail at the world's cuckoos, couas and anis - it is the ultimate reference to the cuckoos of the world. Famed as brood-parasites of other birds, the cuckoos include a diverse range of species, from the roadrunners of North America to the spectacular malkohas of southern Asia. This book discusses the biology and identification of these birds on a species-by-species basis, bringing together the very latest research with accurate range maps, more than 600 stunning colour photographs that illuminate age and racial plumage differences, and 36 superb plates by a team of internationally renowned artists.

Author : Nick Davies
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2015-04-07
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781620409534

Get Book

Cuckoo by Nick Davies Pdf

A gifted biologist's careful and beguiling study of why cuckoos have got away with tricking other birds into hatching and raising their young for thousands of years. The familiar call of the common cuckoo, "cuck-oo,†? has been a harbinger of spring ever since our ancestors walked out of Africa many thousands of years ago. However, for naturalist and scientist Nick Davies, the call is an invitation to solve an enduring puzzle: how does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring? Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts. For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary "arms race†? between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. For birding and evolution aficionados, The Cuckoo is a lyrical and scientifically satisfying exploration of one of nature's most astonishing and beautiful adaptations.

Author : Anthony Doerr
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 1152 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-09-28
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781982189679

Get Book

Cloud Cuckoo Land (Large Print Edition) by Anthony Doerr Pdf

Follows four young dreamers and outcasts through time and space, from 1453 Constantinople to the future, as they discover resourcefulness and hope amidst peril.

Author : Bernd Heinrich
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2011-10
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780674061934

Get Book

The Nesting Season by Bernd Heinrich Pdf

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.

Author : Johannes Erritzoe,Oscar van Rootselaar
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Birds
ISBN : 8798783505

Get Book

Working Bibliography of Cuckoos and Turacos of the World by Johannes Erritzoe,Oscar van Rootselaar Pdf

Author : Robert B. Payne
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 644 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2005-07-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 0191513555

Get Book

The Cuckoos by Robert B. Payne Pdf

The cuckoos are the most variable birds in social behavior and parental care: a few cuckoos are among the most social of all birds and rear their young in a common nest; most cuckoos are caring parents that rear their own young with some females laying a few eggs in the nests of others; while many cuckoo species are brood parasites who leave their eggs in the nests of other birds to rear, with their young maturing to kill their foster nestmates. In The Cuckoos, Robert B. Payne presents a new evolutionary history of the family based on molecular genetics, and uses the family tree to explore the origins and diversity of their behaviour. He traces details of the cuckoos' biology to their original sources, includes descriptions of previously unpublished field observations, and reveals new comparisons of songs showing previously overlooked cuckoo species. Lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned colour plates and numerous maps, halftones, and line drawings, The Cuckoos provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of this family yet available.

Author : Robert B. Payne,Michael D. Sorensen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 682 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2005-07-14
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780198502135

Get Book

The Cuckoos by Robert B. Payne,Michael D. Sorensen Pdf

Publisher Description

Author : Oldřich Mikulica,Tomás Grim,Karl Schulze-Hagen,Bård G. Stokke
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0995567301

Get Book

The Cuckoo by Oldřich Mikulica,Tomás Grim,Karl Schulze-Hagen,Bård G. Stokke Pdf

We all know Cuckoos as the harbingers of spring - whose haunting calls proclaim the birds own name across fields and reedbeds. A bird much more often heard than actually seen, and often mistaken for a hawk or falcon when briefly glimpsed in flight. Cuckoos are also well known, perhaps even infamous, for their habit of laying their own eggs into the nests of much smaller species, such as reed warblers, who are then doomed to raise the enormous cuckoo chick rather than their own young, and whose eggs are ruthlessly thrown from the nest by the cuckoo hatchling. But how does this complex behaviour act out in nature, and how did it evolve? What are the cuckoo's special tricks and what counter-measures have the host birds developed to resist the depredations of cuckoos? In this book the authors delve into the stories behind what we see, and into the complex and ever evolving evolutionary arms race by which the nest parasite and its hosts constantly try to leapfrog each other into prime position. The natural history of the cuckoo-host struggle is illuminated with detailed explanations of the results of behavioural and ecological research to provide a comprehensive, but highly readable, account in which an insight into one puzzle constantly reveals a new question begging an answer. The whole story is brought vividly to life through the astonishing photographs of Oldo Mikulica, who has watched cuckoos and their various hosts from hides for almost four decades. The result is a unique and beautiful book which both informs and delights.

Author : Josep del Hoyo
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 967 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Birds
ISBN : 8416728372

Get Book

All the Birds of the World by Josep del Hoyo Pdf

Author : Clifford Stoll
Publisher : Doubleday
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2012-05-23
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9780307819420

Get Book

CUCKOO'S EGG by Clifford Stoll Pdf

Before the Internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive U.S. citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" (Smithsonian). Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter"—a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases—a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA . . . and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.

Author : Wendy Orr
Publisher : Allen & Unwin
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2021-03-02
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781761061202

Get Book

Cuckoo's Flight by Wendy Orr Pdf

If she had stayed to load the kiln as she should have, she'd never have seen the ship. Mama said the ship still would have been there, so everything had to happen the way it did. But that's not true. Clio saw it, and the world changed. When a raiders' ship appears off the coast, the goddess demands an unthinkable price to save the town - and Clio's grandmother creates a sacred statue to save Clio's life. But Clio is torn between the demands of guarding the statue and caring for her beloved horses. Disabled in an accident, she must try to put aside her own grief at no longer being able to ride - and in the process, save a friend's life and stop a war. Rippling with emotion and drama, war and resistance, fear and determination, this novel is a brilliant companion to the highly acclaimed Dragonfly Song and Swallow's Dance.

Author : Ken Kesey
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2007-11-27
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101209042

Get Book

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey Pdf

An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the defining works of the 1960s. In this classic novel, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax. “BRILLIANT!”—Time “A SMASHING ACHIEVEMENT...A TRULY ORIGINAL NOVEL!”—Mark Schorer “Mr. Kesey has created a world that is convincing, alive and glowing within its own boundaries...His is a large, robust talent, and he has written a large, robust book.”—Saturday Review

Author : M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
Publisher : The Fellowship Press
Page : 502 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1981-12
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 0914390449

Get Book

My Love You, My Children by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Pdf

Author : Michael McCarthy
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2010-03-04
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781848543829

Get Book

Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo by Michael McCarthy Pdf

If we could see it as a whole, if they all arrived in a single flock, say, we would be truly amazed: sixteen million birds. Swallows, martins, swifts, warblers, wagtails, wheatears, cuckoos, chats, nightingales, nightjars, thrushes, pipits and flycatchers pouring into Britain from sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the enduring wonders of the natural world. Each bird faces the most daunting of journeys -navigating epic distances, dependent on bodily fuel reserves. Yet none can refuse. Since pterodactyls flew, twice-yearly odysseys have been the lot of migrant birds. For us, for millennia, the Great Arrival has been celebrated. From The Song of Solomon, through Keats' Ode To a Nightingale, to our thrill at hearing the first cuckoo call each year, the spring-bringers are timeless heralds of shared seasonal joy. Yet, migrant birds are finding it increasingly hard to make the perilous journeys across the African desert. Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo is a moving call to arms by an impassioned expert: get outside, teach your children about these birds, don't let them disappear from our shores and hearts.

Author : Nick Davies
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 331 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2010-09-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781408135853

Get Book

Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats by Nick Davies Pdf

This fascinating study describes the natural histories of these brood parasites and examines many of the exciting questions they raise about the evolution of cheating and the arms race between parasites and their prey. Brood parasites fill their armoury with adaptations including exquisite egg mimicry, rapid laying, ejection of host eggs, murder of host young, chick mimicry and manipulative begging behaviour: ploys shown by recent research to have evolved in response to host defence behaviour or through competition among the parasites themselves. While many host species appear defenceless, accepting parasite eggs quite unlike their own, many are more discriminating against odd-looking eggs and some have evolved the ability to discriminate against odd-looking chicks as well. How is this arms race conducted? Will defenceless hosts develop defences in time, or are there constraints which limit the evolution and perfection of host defences? And why are so few species obliged only to lay eggs in host nests? Have host defences limited the success of brood parasitism, or is it in fact much more common than we suspect, but occurring mainly when birds parasitize the nest of their own kind? All of these puzzles are examined in descriptions of the natural history of each of the groups of parasites in turn. Here is a book with wide appeal, both to amateur naturalists fascinated by this most singular and macabre of behaviours and by ornithologists and ecologists interested in the evolution of ecology and behaviour. The story takes us from the classic field work by pioneer ornithologists such as Edgar Chance, Stuart Baker, Herbert Friedmann and others, through to the experimental field work and molecular techniques of today's leading scientists. We visit brood parasites in Europe, Asia, Japan, Africa, Australasia, and North and South America, to look at some of the world's most interesting birds and some of biology's most interesting questions, many of which still beg answers from ornithologists in the future. Brilliant illustrations by David Quinn illuminate the species discussed, showing many behaviours never before illustrated and conveying the thrill of watching these astonishing birds in the wild.