Birds of prey spend most of their time in flight and, when viewed from the ground, they are notoriously hard to identify. Australian Birds of Prey in Flight is a photographic guide to the eagles, hawks, kites and falcons flying high above you. Individual species profiles describe distinguishing features and the text is supported by detailed images showing the birds at six different angles and poses, using photographs from many of Australia's leading bird photographers. Annotated multi-spec...

Falcons are stunning and iconic birds. Australia has six falcon species, with two endemic to the continent and two others endemic to the Australasian region. They are important indicators of the health of our ecosystems, due to their position at the top of the food chain. But several species are declining, with two species threatened in some states.In Australian Falcons: Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation, Dr Stephen Debus provides a 30-year update of knowledge on these s...

Raptors are popular and iconic birds, and are important ecologically, with some species listed as threatened. Yet they are among the most difficult birds to identify. This fully updated Third Edition of the popular and award-winning field guide Birds of Prey of Australia contains two sections: a field guide with distribution maps, detailed illustrations and information on identification; and a handbook which includes an overview of the current knowledge about raptors, including their biolo...

This book is an illustrated field guide to diurnal raptors, a bird group that many people find among the most difficult birds to identify. Raptors are popular and iconic birds, and important ecologically as well as in legislation, with some species listed as threatened. Birds of Prey of Australia will enable people to more easily identify them. It also provides a brief overview of the biology of raptors and an indication of the current state of knowledge on them. The book has been completely ...

Eagles are awe-inspiring birds that have influenced much human endeavour. Australia is home to three eagle species, and in Melanesia there are four additional endemic species. A further three large Australian hawks are eagle-like. Eagles, being at the top of the food chain, are sensitive ecological barometers of human impact on the Earth’s ecosystem services, and all of the six Australian species covered in this book are threatened in at least some states (one also nationally). Three of the f...

Cockatoos are large, intelligent and attractive birds. Of the 21 recognised species, 14 occur in Australia, with three of these also found in New Guinea. Seven species are distributed across the islands of south-east Asia. While many species are common or abundant, an increasing number face extinction due to habitat loss, the illegal bird trade and global warming. Extensively illustrated, Cockatoos looks at the ecology and conservation of these iconic birds, including their evolution, distrib...

Winner of the 2008 Whitley Award for Field Guide. Shorebirds of Australia brings together the latest information about the evolution, ecology and behaviour of shorebirds and how they are distributed in Australia. Complete with colour photographs and up-to-date distribution maps, it provides descriptions and tips to assist with the identification of all species of shorebird in Australia, which comprise about 10 per cent of Australia’s total avifauna. In addition to information about their habi...

This is the first book created primarily for the field identification of parrots, one of the most familiar and colorful groups of birds.From the mighty. macaws to the diminutive pygmy parrots, the 350 species of parrots include cockatoos, parakeets, lovebirds, and Budgerigar. Most are brightly colored or even gaudy, but a few are drab, and some are nocturnal and flightess. Parrots, found throughout most of the warmer regions of the world, occur in greatest numbers ...

The remote, beautiful and poorly known rainforests of Cape York Peninsula tell a special story about Australia’s historic and present-day connections to New Guinea. Life in the Cape York Rainforest highlights these connections by examining the fascinating biology of some of the most spectacular animals shared between the two regions. The author recounts his own ground-breaking research on ‘cross-dressing’ Eclectus parrots, musical palm cockatoos and multi-coloured pythons, together with the e...

The phenomenon of bird migration has fascinated people from time immemorial. The arrivals and departures of different species marked the seasons, heralding spring and autumn, and providing a reliable calendar long before anything better became available.Migration is shown by many kinds of animals, including butterflies and other insects, mammals, marine turtles and fish, but in none is it as extensively developed as in birds. The collective travel routes of birds span almost the en...

Pipits and Wagtails is the first comprehensive guide to all the species and subspecies that occur in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America.The detailed species accounts cover all aspects of identification (size, structure, plumage, bare parts, geographical variation, behaviour, distribution, and habitat.) In particular, great care has been taken to illustrate and describe accurately the differences between all valid subspecies as well as differences relating...

Two species of magpie feature in this book, the Black-billed Magpie, familiar to most Europeans, which occurs throughout much of the northern hemisphere, and the Yellow-billed Magpie, which is confined to California.Magpies are unmistakable in their appearance, voice and extrovert, arrogant manner. While their persecution at the hands of gamekeepers over the last hundred years has made them wary and difficult to approach, a number of recent field studies, both in E...