Understanding Bird Behaviour

Author : Wenfei Tong
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2020-09-22
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780691211817

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Understanding Bird Behavior by Wenfei Tong Pdf

A vivid, eye-opening view of why birds behave the way they do Birds are intelligent, sociable creatures that exhibit a wide array of behaviors—from mobbing and mimicking to mating and joint nesting. Why do they behave as they do? Bringing to light the remarkable actions of birds through examples from species around the world, Understanding Bird Behavior presents engaging vignettes about the private lives of birds, all explained in an evolutionary context. We discover how birds find food, relying on foraging techniques, tools, and thievery. We learn about the courtship rituals through which birds choose, compete for, woo, and win mates; the familial conflicts that crop up among parents, offspring, and siblings; and the stresses and strains of nesting, including territory defense, nepotism, and relationship sabotage. We see how birds respond to threats and danger—through such unique practices as murmurations, specific alarm calls, distraction displays, and antipredator nest design. We also read about how birds change certain behaviors—preening, migration, breeding, and huddling—based on climate. Richly illustrated, this book explores the increasing focus on how individual birds differ in personality and how big data and citizen scientists are helping to add to what we know about them. Drawing on classic examples and the latest research, Understanding Bird Behavior offers a close-up look at the many ways birds conduct themselves in the wild. Compelling insights into bird behavior Classic examples and the latest research, including work by citizen scientists Fascinating vignettes about the private lives of birds, from finding food and family life, to coping with climate and other threats 150 detailed color illustrations and photographs

Author : Wenfei Tong
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2020-09-22
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780691206004

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Understanding Bird Behavior by Wenfei Tong Pdf

Presents engaging vignettes about the private lives of birds, from family life to coping with today's environments, all explained in an evolutionary context.

Author : Stephen Moss
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2015-08-27
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781472925862

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Understanding Bird Behaviour by Stephen Moss Pdf

The way birds behave is one of the vital keys to accurate identification and this book provides the experienced instruction needed to understand and get the most out of watching birds. The guide covers all the fundamental types of bird behaviour, including movement, feeding, breeding, migration, navigation, distribution, range, life and death, all of which are illustrated with beautiful photographs. There is a whole section dedicated to the behaviour of different species groups, from divers and grebes through to sparrows, buntings and finches.

Author : John Kricher
Publisher : Peterson Reference Guides
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Birds
ISBN : 9781328787361

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Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior by John Kricher Pdf

A fascinating look at what birds do and why they do it Both casual and serious birdwatchers can take their skills to the next level with this detailed consideration of bird behavior. This book makes it possible to move beyond identifying birds to understanding some of the underpinning and meaning to what birds do, how they do it, and why they do it. Written in an easy-to-understand style, with an abundance of photos illustrating the behaviors, the book shows how flight, molt, migration, feeding, predation, social behavior, courtship, and nesting shape birds' behaviors. Birds are everywhere, and easy to observe; this introduction to elements of bird behavior will connect readers more intimately with these remarkable and beguilingly perceptive animals.

Author : Paul M. W. Hackett
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-01-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030121921

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The Complexity of Bird Behaviour by Paul M. W. Hackett Pdf

This book presents the facet theoretical framework as a tool for facilitating the conception of complex animal behaviour research and the design of research procedures through employing mapping sentences. Using the facet theoretical framework, this book takes a holistic view of bird behaviour. Components of bird behavior are identified and then reassembled to facilitate an understanding of the behaviour in the context of its natural occurrence. This provides new insight on both the parts of the behaviour and how these interact as a whole. The multi-faceted approach to designing, evaluating and understanding bird behavior presented offers a template that is adaptable for investigating a wide variety of avian species and different forms of behaviour. Behavioural biologists, animal and comparative psychologists, other natural and behavioural scientists, as well as students of these disciplines will find this book to be an interesting and enlightening read.

Author : Nicholas E. Collias,Elsie C. Collias
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2014-07-14
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781400853625

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Nest Building and Bird Behavior by Nicholas E. Collias,Elsie C. Collias Pdf

This book is a comprehensive study of nest-building behavior in birds. A much-needed synthesis of the previously scattered literature on this central aspect of avian biology, it is organized by behavior problems and focuses on evolution as its unifying theme. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : Stephen Moss
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Birds
ISBN : OCLC:1245900004

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Understanding Bird Behaviour by Stephen Moss Pdf

Author : Mike Hansell
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2000-08-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 1139429086

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Bird Nests and Construction Behaviour by Mike Hansell Pdf

Bird Nests and Construction Behaviour provides a broad view of our understanding of the biology of the nests, bowers and tools made by birds. It illustrates how, among vertebrates, the building abilities of birds are more impressive and consistent than for any other builders other than ourselves, yet birds seem to require no special equipment, and use quite uncomplicated behaviour. In doing so, the book raises general issues in the field of behavioural ecology including the costs of reproduction, sexual selection and the organisation and complexity of behaviour. Written for students and researchers of animal behaviour, behavioural ecology and ornithology, it will nevertheless make fascinating reading for architects and engineers interested in understanding how structures are created by animals.

Author : Norman Elkins
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2010-01-29
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781408128220

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Weather and Bird Behaviour by Norman Elkins Pdf

This classic Poyser title, now in its third revised edition, discusses in depth the various ways in which weather conditions influence bird behaviour. Weather conditions affect food and water availability, decisions about when and how to migrate, timing and success of reproduction, flight style, and physical comfort. Birds display many adaptations in form and behaviour that help them to cope with changing weather conditions, and this fascinating book uses a great variety of examples to explore the subject in depth. The text is enhanced throughout with evocative line drawings, there are many useful tables and figures, and there is also an 8pp colour photograph section.

Author : Robert Burton
Publisher : Alfred A. Knopf
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Birds
ISBN : UCSD:31822001597350

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Bird Behavior by Robert Burton Pdf

Describes the interplay of instinct, intelligence and learning that governs the lives and habits of feathered species.

Author : Tim Birkhead
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2012-04-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780802779687

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Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead Pdf

What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses--vision and hearing--but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a bird's sense of taste, or smell, or touch, or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away--how do they do it? Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, Birkhead identifies ways we can escape from them to explore new horizons in bird behaviour. There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by all their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation and a unique understanding of birds and their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science.

Author : David Allen Sibley
Publisher : Alfred a Knopf Incorporated
Page : 588 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Nature
ISBN : 1400043867

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The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior by David Allen Sibley Pdf

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.

Author : Wenfei Tong
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2020-03-24
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780691208909

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Bird Love by Wenfei Tong Pdf

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.

Author : Jennifer Ackerman
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-04
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780735223035

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The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman Pdf

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.

Author : Gisela Kaplan
Publisher : CSIRO PUBLISHING
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2015-08-03
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781486300198

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Bird Minds by Gisela Kaplan Pdf

In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cognitive abilities, suggesting plausible reasons for their appearance in Australian birds. Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Gisela’s well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour.