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This is the first single volume guide ever devoted to the eastern Asian avifauna. The eastern Asian region, centering especially on the major islands off the continental coast (including Japan and Taiwan) and the immediately adjacent areas of the Asian continent from Kamchatka in the north and including the Korean Peninsula are an important centre of endemism. Birds endemic to this region include representatives of many of the major families, from the world's largest eagle - Steller's Sea Eagle...

A guide to the tracks and other signs of European birds. It describes, using colour illustrations, the many physical signs that can be found in the field, from feathers and skulls to prey remains and pellets. The volume seeks to enable the ornithologist to establish the presence of a species without necessarily encountering the bird itself. This second edition is revised and updated to include more data and ten new plates of artwork, and it covers a number of extra species.

This volume covers the first 312 of the 1200 or so passerine species which occur in continental Africa and the outlying islands. Each breeding species receives full coverage, with sections on range and status, description, voice, general habits, food and breeding biology. Non-breeding visitors are treated more briefly with a text concentrating on the birds' status and biology while in Africa. Range maps are given for each bird and superspecies maps are shown where appropriate.

The Barnacle Goose, a distinctive, handsome black-and-white bird, gets its name from a mediaeval myth that the birds hatched from barnacles - how else to explain their sudden appearance each autumn in northern Britain? We now know, of course, that the birds migrate from Arctic Russia, Norway and Svalbard to winter throughout northern Europe. This book represents a culmination of more than 25 years of Barnacle Goose research. It represents the story of one of Europe's most celebrated long-term be...

Pigeons and doves are a large family of birds occurring throughout the world. This book -- the first to be dedicated to the field identification of these birds and to be fully illustrated in color -- incorporates much recent information about them.Many species of pigeons and doves are specialist frugivores, say the authors, while others feed on seeds. Most are arboreal, and the tropical species in particular are often brightly colored. The family includes gregarious migratory species as well as...

Usually observed as a flash of blue and orange from a riverbank, most people are aware of Kingfishers, but few of us are familiar with the intricacies of their day-to-day lives. With their long, dagger-like bills, bright blue plumage and characteristic fast, low flight over water, Common Kingfishers are instantly recognisable. The 90 or so species that belong to this colourful family have a cosmopolitan distribution and, in Spotlight Kingfishers, David Chandler celebrates their remarkable exist...

All of the Nethersole-Thompson family contribute in some measure to this book but it is Dr Desmond Nethersole-Thompson's life-long interest in waders which gives the work its exceptional quality and authority. For well over fifty years the study of waders and their behaviour has been his passion, and his great knowledge and experience are internationally recognised. There is a bonus, too, for the reader in the particular freshness and style of his writing which conveys not only his closely obser...

The ostrich is a relatively new agricultural animal in many parts of the world and even in South Africa it was domesticated only a little over a century ago. Recently however there has been a huge growth in interest in ostrich farming, and production of ostriches for low-fat meat and leather is now a reality in many parts of the world. This book is the first comprehensive volume to review the world scientific literature on ostrich biology, production and health:Written by leading authors from So...

Eagles are among the most impressive hunters of the animal world. Their predatory prowess and flying skills have imbued them with a romance and mystique that runs deep in our culture and has elevated them to emblems of freedom and power across the globe. At the same time, however, people have long seen eagles as competitors. Reviled by farmers and gamekeepers as snatchers of livestock, many species have been driven into decline by persecution and disturbance. Two species of eagle occur in Brita...