The Pinyon Jay

Author : John M. Marzluff,Russel P. Balda
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2010-10-30
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781408136928

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The Pinyon Jay by John M. Marzluff,Russel P. Balda Pdf

A flock of Pinyon Jays arrive in a flash of blue, and leave again just as suddenly. This once mysterious bird is now the subject of over 20 years of intensive research involving over one thousand colour-marked jays by Russell Balda, John Marzluff and their colleagues and helpers. This plain blue bird has turned out to be anything but plain in its biology and behaviour. Uniquely dependent on the seeds of the Pinyon Pine for food, they have developed a number of behavioural and morphological adaptations to best utilise this resource, above all caching enough seeds each autumn to supply their needs throughout the winter and fuel their unusual habit of nesting in late winter. Fluctuations in pine-seed supply, both by season and between years, poses special problems for these birds and has led to their extremely flexible and complex social system in which learning and memory play an unusually large part. They store pine seeds and retrieve them with uncanny accuracy; they form lifelong pair bonds and nest colonially, occasionally involving younger birds to help established pairs rear the young; and they use their large vocabulary to coordinate activities within one of the largest known avian societies. This intriguing story will fascinate both the enthusiastic amateur birder and the professional alike. Packed with information, it presents Pinyon Jay biology in a readable form and places them into the wider context of studies on bird ecology and evolution. Fine illustrations by Tony Angell, with additional pictures by Caroline Bauder, complete this attractive addition to any birder's bookshelf.

Author : Russell P. Balda,Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,American Ornithologists' Union
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:421990284

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Pinyon Jay by Russell P. Balda,Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,American Ornithologists' Union Pdf

Author : Ted Floyd
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : House & Home
ISBN : 9781426220036

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How to Know the Birds by Ted Floyd Pdf

"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.

Author : Ronald M. Lanner
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1996-08-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 0198024975

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Made for Each Other by Ronald M. Lanner Pdf

Some trees and birds are made for each other. Take, for example, the whitebark pine, a timberline tree that graces the moraines and ridgetops of the northern Rockies and the Sierra Nevada-Cascades system. This lovely five-needled pine, long-lived and rugged though it is, cannot reproduce without the help of Clark's nutcracker. And the nutcracker, though it captures insects in the summer and steals a bit of carrion, cannot raise its young in these alpine habitats without feeding them the nutritious seeds of the whitebark pine. Between them, these dwellers of the high mountains provide for each others' posterity, which leads biologists to label their relationship symbiotic, or mutualistic. But there is more to it than that, because in playing out their roles these partners change the landscape. The environment they create provides life's necessities to many other plants and animals. Working in concert, Clark's nutcracker and the whitebark pine build ecosystems. In Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines, Ronald M. Lanner details for the first time this fascinating relationship between pine trees and Corvids (nutcrackers and jays), showing how mutualism can drive not only each others' evolution, but affect the ecology of many other members of the surrounding ecosystem as well. Lanner explains that many of the world's pines have seeds not adapted to wind dispersal. Fortunately, their seeds are harvested from the cone and scattered over many miles by seed-eating jays and nutcrackers who bury millions of seeds in the soil as a winter food source. Remarkably, these "pine nut" dependent birds can find their caches even through deep snow. Seeds left in the soil germinate, perpetuating the pines and guarantee future seeds for future birds. Moreover, the newly "planted" whitebark pine groves encourage further tree growth, such as Engelmann spruce, and eventually the patches of open-grown woodland coalesce, forming a continuous forest. Large forest stands offer cover for large animals like bear, elk, and moose, and provide territories for Red Squirrels. These squirrels also depend on pine seeds as a food source, storing large quantities of seeds on the ground, piled up against fallen logs or stumps, or buried in the forest litter. In the fall both black and grizzly bears are preparing to hibernate and must increase their stores of body fat. The seeds of whitebark pine are large and very rich, containing sixty to seventy percent fat, and are an ideal food for this purpose. The large seed reserves created by the squirrels become a feasting ground for these bears. Meanwhile, the sun-loving trees shaded out by the maturing decay offer housing for cavity-nesters like woodpeckers and nuthatches, as well as a breeding ground for fungi which are eagerly devoured by mule deer and red squirrels in search of protein. Eventually, when the forest is ignited in one of the thunderstorms so common and so violent in the high country, an open area is created, attracting nutcrackers in need of a new cache site, and the cycle begins again. Focusing on the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, and ranging as far afield as the Alps, Finland, Siberia, and China, this beautifully illustrated and gracefully written work illuminates the phenomenon of co-evolution.

Author : Kenn Kaufman
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 708 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0618159886

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Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman Pdf

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

Author : Troy E. Corman,Cathryn Wise-Gervais
Publisher : UNM Press
Page : 654 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0826333796

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The Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas by Troy E. Corman,Cathryn Wise-Gervais Pdf

Examines over 270 species of birds known to breed in Arizona, complete with color photos and nesting and migratory data.

Author : Russell P. Balda,Irene M. Pepperberg,A. C. Kamil
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1998-09-09
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780080527239

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Animal Cognition in Nature by Russell P. Balda,Irene M. Pepperberg,A. C. Kamil Pdf

In this book, the editors bring together results from studies on all kinds of animals to show how thinking on many behaviors as truly cognitive processes can help us to understand the biology involved. Taking ideas and observations from the while range of research into animal behavior leads to unexpected and stimulating ideas. A space is created where the work of field ecologists, evolutionary ecologists and experimental psychologists can interact and contribute to a greater understanding of complex animal behavior, and to the development of a new and coherent field of study.

Author : Robert A. Askins
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780300127119

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Restoring North America's Birds by Robert A. Askins Pdf

DIVThe decline of bird species in a wide range of North American habitats—forests, prairies, shrublands, mountain regions, marshes, and deserts—has inspired two decades of intense scientific study of bird ecology and conservation. But for professional scientists and amateur birders alike, interpreting the results of these diverse studies is often complex and bewildering. This accessible book pulls together recent research on bird species and habitats to show how basic ecological principles apply in seemingly different situations. Robert A. Askins provides an engaging introduction to bird ecology and concepts of landscape ecology, focusing on such intriguing species as Bachman’s Warbler, Red Crossbill, Mountain Plover, and Marbled Murrelet. Understanding the ancient landscapes of North America and how humans have changed them, Askins says, is essential for devising plans to protect and restore bird populations. In addition to such obvious changes to the landscape as the clearing of forests and plowing of prairies, more subtle changes also dramatically affect birds. Species may disappear when we interrupt natural disturbances by suppressing wildfires or trapping out beaver, or when we disrupt habitat with roads and housing developments. Askins challenges some of the assumptions that underlie current conservation efforts and offers concrete recommendations, based on sound ecological principles, for protecting the rich natural diversity of North America’s birds./div

Author : Mary Taylor Young
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2023-05-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781641608152

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Bluebird Seasons by Mary Taylor Young Pdf

"This wonderful book is faithful both in its witness to the world's beauty and to our need to act now to preserve something of that wonder and grace. It brings the bracing air of the Rockies to us all." —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature In this A Sand County Almanac for the twenty-first century, nature writer and zoologist Mary Taylor Young tells the story of the growing effects of climate change on her land in the pine-covered foothills of southern Colorado. Climate change wasn't yet on the public radar when Young and her husband bought their piece of the wild in 1995. They built a cabin, set up a trail of bluebird nest boxes, and began a nature journal of observations, delighting in the ceaseless dramas, joys, and tragedies that are the fabric of life in the wild. But changes greater than the seasonal cycles of nature became evident over time: increasing drought, wildfires, bears delaying hibernation, and the decline of familiar birds and appearance of new species. Their journal of sightings over twenty-five bluebird seasons, she realized, was a record of climate change happening, not in an Indonesian rainforest or on an Antarctic ice sheet but in their own natural neighborhood. Using the journal as a chronicle of change, Young tells a story echoed in everyone's lives and backyards. But it's not time to despair, she writes. It's time to act. Young sees hope in the human ability to overcome great obstacles, in the energy and determination of young people, and in nature's resilience, which the bluebirds show season after season.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 700 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : Forests and forestry
ISBN : UCR:31210020135487

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General Technical Report INT. by Anonim Pdf

Author : David C. Iverson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 680 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : Forest management
ISBN : STANFORD:36105009851093

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The Genesis of FORPLAN by David C. Iverson Pdf

Author : Glen Everett Woolfenden,John W. Fitzpatrick
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 428 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0691083673

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The Florida Scrub Jay by Glen Everett Woolfenden,John W. Fitzpatrick Pdf

Florida Scrub Jays are an excellent example of a cooperative-breeding species, in which adult birds often help raise offspring not their own. For more than a decade Glen E. Woolfenden and John W. Fitzpatrick studied a marked population of these birds in an attempt to establish a demographic base for understanding the phenomenon of "helping at the nest." By studying both population biology and behavior, the authors found that habitat restraints, rather than kin selection, are the main source of the behavior of Florida Scrub Jays: the goal of increasing the number of close relatives other than descendants in future generations is of relatively minor importance in their cooperative-breeding behavior. The Florida Scrub Jay lives only in the Florida oak scrub. All acceptable habitat is constantly filled with breeders. Each year about half of the pairs are assisted by one to several nonbreeding helpers. This book provides extensive data on fecundity, survivorship, relatedness, and dispersal to establish the demographic milieu and to address questions arising out of observed helping behavior--whom, how, when, and why the helpers help.

Author : Jeffrey M. Black
Publisher : Oxford University Press, UK
Page : 438 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1996-05-30
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780191590542

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Partnerships in Birds : The Study of Monogamy by Jeffrey M. Black Pdf

Some birds mate for life, while others have many partners. Why? In this book, fourteen classic studies of bird behaviour are brought together to compare the different partnership patterns from ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Often there is a battle of the sexes, as individual birds behave in the way that serves their best interests. Introductory and concluding chapters review the latest thinking on this fascinating subject. - ;Some birds mate for life, while others have many partners. In this book, fourteen studies are brought together to compare different partnership patterns from ecological and evolutionary perspectives. The subjects have been chosen to include the same species living in different habitats (Sparrowhawks) and at different population densities (Great Tits). There are comparisons between closely related species (Mute Swans and Bewick's Swans). The studies span the globe and the behavioural gradient, from Iceland's strictly monogamous Whooper Swans to Australia's sexually promiscuous Splendid Fairy-wrens. In all cases, sexual and social relationships strongly influence a bird's survival and breeding success. -

Author : Thomas R. Zentall,Edward A. Wasserman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 960 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-03-20
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780199930661

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The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition by Thomas R. Zentall,Edward A. Wasserman Pdf

In the past decade, the field of comparative cognition has grown and thrived. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, examinations of animal intelligence are useful for scientists and psychologists alike in their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence. Extensive field research of various species has yielded exciting new areas of research, integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition contains sections on perception and illusion, attention and search, memory processes, spatial cognition, conceptualization and categorization, problem solving and behavioral flexibility, and social cognition processes including findings in primate tool usage, pattern learning, and counting. The authors have incorporated findings and theoretical approaches that reflect the current state of the field. This comprehensive volume will be a must-read for students and scientists who want to know about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition.

Author : Peter B. Stacey,Walter D. Koenig
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 644 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1990-04-19
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0521378907

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Cooperative Breeding in Birds by Peter B. Stacey,Walter D. Koenig Pdf

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.