New Book Announcement

We have three new volumes in the Bird Families of the World series from Oxford University Press:

The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhychidae
Clifford Frith and Dawn Frith
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Call# QL696 .P2675 F75 2004

From Oxford University Press:

"The bowerbirds are confined to the great island of New Guinea and the island continent of Australia, and their immediately adjacent islands. They are medium-sized birds, omnivorous and largely solitary. They are unique in the avian world in that the males build elaborate 'bowers': structures of sticks, grasses or other plant stems on or close to the ground for display and courtship, often incorporating objects such as colourful fruits, flowers, feathers, bones, stones, shells, insect skeletons, and numerous other natural (and human-made) objects.

The highly sophisticated building, decorating, collecting, arranging, thieving, singing, and courtship posturing and dancing by males is primarily to attract and impress females. As much of it is performed in the absence of females, however, some consider it possible that males may also enjoy such activities for their own sake. The bowers and the birds' behaviour associated with them have been much studied by behavioural ecologists searching for evolutionary and ecological explanations of behavioural patterns.

The authors' aims include: (a) making the reader aware of the broader significance of bowerbirds to general biological studies and (b) providing references to key literature on theoretical issues.

Part I contains general chapters on bowerbird evolution, behaviour, environment, demography, courtship patterns, breeding biology, and sexual selection. Part II follows with 21 species accounts, giving comprehensive information on the birds in their natural state, including distribution maps and sonographs. Complementing the species accounts are superb colour plates by Eustace Barnes, especially commissioned for this volume.

The Bowerbirds, like its companions in the series, is an indispensable work of reference for everyone interested in birds."
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Albatrosses and Petrels Across the World
Michael Brooke
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Call# QL696 .P63 B76 2004

From Oxford University Press:

"Description
Provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date species-level information available on this family of birds, from a renowned expert and communicator, Michael Brooke
Includes chapters covering the biology, feeding ecology, breeding behaviour, evolutionary relationships, and conservation of the birds in the family
General chapters are followed by accounts of each species, including weights and measurements, field characters, voice, habitat and food, breeding behaviour, life cycle, and range and status
Specially commissioned illustrations include 16 colour plates by John Cox showing adults of all species and many juveniles, immatures, and subspecies, plus integrated species distribution maps and black-and-white line figures
Bird Families of the World, a multivolume series of handbooks, is intended to serve the interests of both the professional scientist and the ever-growing body of amateur ornithologists; each volume provides a comprehensive and accurate synthesis of our knowledge of one bird family or several related families

Visiting all the world's seas, the 125 species of albatross and petrel are the most oceanic and widespread of all seabirds. The nesting islands tenanted by these remarkable birds include some of the remotest atolls and some of the bleakest ice-bound Antarctic islands on the planet. Despite their penchant for the remote, petrels are now well studied ashore during breeding and, thanks to the rapid development of satellite tracking and similar techniques, when they roam the high seas. In this comprehensive and elegantly written book, Michael Brooke, who has visited some 40 countries in pursuit of birds, has brought together a wealth of information on all aspects of the biology of the species. He considers why Short-tailed Shearwaters nesting off Australia make regular 10,000 km round trips to Antarctica to harvest a single meal for their chicks, and he discusses the fearsome threat posed to most of the world's 21 albatross species by modern fishing techniques, especially long-lining.

Following the ten introductory chapters come 125 individual species accounts, each accompanied by a detailed distribution map. These accounts are the most accessible and up-to-date summaries of each species' biology currently available. The book is enhanced by 16 colour plates and many delightful line drawings by John Cox, and the text is also liberally illustrated with photographs.

Albatrosses and Petrels Across the World will appeal to all seabird enthusiasts, whether non-specialists keen to learn more of the species that can be seen on a pelagic cruise, or professionals eager to discover how the extraordinary lifestyles of albatrosses and petrels are adaptations to a life on the ocean waves."
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Ducks, Geese, and Swans
2 Volumes
Janet Kear, ed.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Call# QL696 .A52 D832 2005

From Oxford University Press:

"Wildfowl and screamers belong to a highly diverse family of birds, confined to watery habitats. They are amongst the most attractive of birds and are very well-known to man, who has domesticated them, used their feathers for warm clothing and ornamentation, admired their flight, courtship and migration, caught them for food, maintained them in captivity for pleasure, and written about their doings in delightful children's stories, from Mother Goose to Jemima Puddleduck and Donald Duck. They occur throughout the world except Antarctica. Some are faithful to the same partner for life, others for only the few minutes of copulation. In some species, male and female make devoted parents, and yet there is one within the group whose female lays her eggs in the nests of others and never incubates. Diving as a method of obtaining food has evolved many times within the family. Most nest in the open but others in the tree-hole nests of woodpeckers and some in the ground burrows of rabbits or aardvarks. They may be highly social or solitary, defending a large territory.

Ducks, Geese and Swans begins with eight chapters giving an overview of the family, their taxonomy and evolution, feeding ecology, breeding strategies, social behaviour, movements and migrations, population dynamics, and conservation and management, followed by accounts of 165 species, written by a team of expert wildfowl specialists, describing each bird in its natural state and summarizing the published literature and recent research. Complementing the accounts are thirty specially commissioned colour plates by Mark Hulme, along with numerous black and white drawings illustrating behaviours, plus distribution maps for each species."