Your Happy Healthy Pet

The authoritative information and advice you need, illustrated throughout with full-color photographs--now revised and redesigned to be even more reader-friendly
Outgoing, cheerful, inquisitive little acrobats, conures are entertaining companion birds. They're small in size, but big in personality. This guide helps you make your conure a part of your family, with information on:
* Choosing your conure
* Creating a safe, stimulating home for your bird
* Everyday care, including feeding and bathing
* Clipping your conure's wings--why, when, and how
* Training tips, from getting your conure comfortable with you to potty training to teaching tricks such as Ride in the Wagon, Nod Your Head, and Play Dead
* Teaching your conure to talk

Conures are often cuddly and almost always wonderfully affectionate, so you'll get a lot of love from your little feathered friend

Your Happy Healthy Pet

The authoritative information and advice you need, illustrated throughout with full-color photographs--now revised and redesigned to be even more reader-friendly
Outgoing, cheerful, inquisitive little acrobats, conures are entertaining companion birds. They're small in size, but big in personality. This guide helps you make your conure a part of your family, with information on:
* Choosing your conure
* Creating a safe, stimulating home for your bird
* Everyday care, including feeding and bathing
* Clipping your conure's wings--why, when, and how
* Training tips, from getting your conure comfortable with you to potty training to teaching tricks such as Ride in the Wagon, Nod Your Head, and Play Dead
* Teaching your conure to talk

Conures are often cuddly and almost always wonderfully affectionate, so you'll get a lot of love from your little feathered friend

In this updated edition of the popular guide to parrot behavior, you'll learn why your bird does strange things and discover positive techniques for modifying those behaviors. Youa ll get information on training and caring for your bird, normal behavior, and species--specific behavior. Don't let your feathers get ruffled by a headstrong, beakstrong bird. Learn how to develop a mutually rewarding relationship with your parrot.

Your Happy Healthy Pet
The authoritative information and advice you need, illustrated throughout with full-color photographs--now revised and redesigned to be even more reader-friendly!
With a chirpy "voice" and quirky personality, the cockatiel is the most popular companion bird. Cockatiels are not big talkers, but most can whistle. This fun guide will help you from the initial "get acquainted" period throughout your bird's life with information on:
* Selecting a healthy bird
* Setting up a healthy and stimulating home
* Feeding, grooming, and veterinary care
* The unique behaviors of cockatiels
* Getting small children and cockatiels to coexist peacefully
* Teaching your bird to do tricks

With their amusing antics, cockatiels provide live entertainment and a welcome release from everyday stress. You provide proper care, and they'll provide great companionship for years!

The authoritative information and advice you need, illustrated throughout with full-color photographs--now revised and redesigned to be even more reader-friendly!
Whoever coined the term "birdbrained" wasn't familiar with parakeets. They're smart as well as funny and entertaining. This guide helps you with everything from preparing for and choosing a parakeet to teaching it to talk and perform tricks. It covers:
* Details on setting up a healthy home for your pet
* Everyday care, including feeding and grooming
* Veterinary care and common health problems
* Normal parakeet behaviors
* Parakeets and children

Parakeets can live up to eighteen years. That's a lot of companionship from a colorful little character who will undoubtedly find a perch in your heart.

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 'Rich and joyous ...The book's quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time' Helen Macdonald 'Big-hearted and quietly gripping' Guardian 'I love Jon Day's writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account' Olivia Laing '[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds' Observer 'This is nature writing at its best' Financial Times 'Awash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful' Telegraph 'Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure' Charlotte Higgins 'A vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition. It's also a charming defence of a much-maligned bird, which will make any reader look at our cooing, waddling, junk-food-loving feathered friends very differently in future' Daily Mail 'Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart' Prospect As a boy, Jon Day was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family. But in moving house, he began to lose a sense of what it meant to feel at home. Returning to his childhood obsession with the birds, he built a coop in his garden and joined a local pigeon racing club. Over the next few years, as he made a home with his young family in Leyton, he learned to train and race his pigeons, hoping that they might teach him to feel homed. Having lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, pigeons have become powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. But they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin. A book about the overlooked beauty of this species, and about what it means to dwell, Homing delves into the curious world of pigeon fancying, explores the scientific mysteries of animal homing, and traces the cultural, political and philosophical meanings of home. It is a book about the making of home and making for home: a book about why we return.

A guide to birdwatching sites in Southern Spain: this book shows you where to go and when to visit for the best birding experience. This guide is best used alongside your field guide - it does not include information about identifying birds. Written by the author of The Birds of the Strait of Gibraltar, this is a much-needed site guide to this major migratory passage point. It provides details of the key birdwatching sites and areas, and birdwatching tips for the region, as well as information on accommodation, planning a trip, bird species and other wildlife likely to be seen. This is a site guide, not an identification guide.

From two noted experts, the first in-depth book on teaching a bird to talk

Teaching a bird to talk isn’t as difficult as it may seem. This easy-to-follow book walks the reader step by step through the behavioral mechanics of teaching a bird to talk, covering the species likely to talk, the anatomical reasons a bird can talk, and the way a parrot picks up language. It explores field research showing that parrots have regional languages and dialects in the wild and also takes a close look at the work of Dr. Irene Pepperberg, an undisputed authority and well-known researcher in the field of parrot intelligence, who was interviewed extensively for this book.

Diane Grindol (Pacific Grove, CA) is a columnist for Bird Talk magazine and the author of Cockatiels For Dummies (0-7645-5311-9). She holds educational seminars for companion bird owners and speaks regularly at bird clubs and avian events throughout the United States. Tom Roudybush, MS (Placerville, CA), is the President of Roudybush Inc., a bird feed company. He lectures on avian nutrition to both veterinary and pet-owning audiences throughout the world.

On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling who sang (an improved version of!) the theme from his Piano Concerto Number 17 in G to him. Knowing a kindred spirit when he met one, Mozart wrote "That was wonderful" in his journal and took the bird home to be his pet. For three years Mozart and his family enjoyed the uniquely delightful company of the starling until one April morning when the bird passed away. In 2013, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Crow Planet, rescued her own starling, Carmen, who has become a part of her family. In Mozart's Starling, Haupt explores the unlikely bond between one of history's most controversial characters and one of history's most notoriously disliked birds. Part natural history, part story, Mozart's Starling will delight readers as they learn about language, music, and the secret world of starlings.

In paperback at last — the definitive guide to parrot training.

Originally published as The Pleasure of Their Company: An Owner's Guide to Parrot Training, this amply illustrated book is just what parrot owners need to bring up happy, well-behaved pets. You get:

• Hands-on advice from one of the nation's foremost parrot authorities
• A thorough explanation of "normal" parrot behavior and the benefits of training
• Coverage of everything from gentling fledglings and basic obedience to potty training, speech, and tricks"

The pet bird population continues to rise and bird fanciers love canaries. As clearly demonstrated by Tweetie, canaries are fun-but they're also beautiful birds that are available in a variety of stunning colors. This book will provide new canary owners with everything they need to know to properly house, feed and maintain the health of their bird.

Birds are ideal subjects for holistic care. They are especially sensitive to emotional and physical stresses. Based on what we have learned from wild birds and studies completed in the last 10-20 years, this book will help you provide your bird with a longer, healthier life. Each beautifully illustrated chapter is written from two viewpoints, one from the leading holistic avian veterinarian and the other from a bird owner's viewpoint. Holistic care is defined and the value of this type of care in relation to conventional western medicine is discussed. Other interesting topics include the physical bird, the emotional bird, nutrition and special holistic therapies.

Britain's gardens are a vast, living landscape and the home to hundreds of species of birds. Learn to pay attention to these visitors to your own garden or local park and you'll have a front-row seat to the unfolding drama that is the garden bird's year. As dawn breaks across your back garden, if you were paying attention, you would notice that the robin and the blackbird are always the first birds to arrive. These ground hunters have large eyes, so don't mind the dim light of the early morning. And that's just the beginning of what you can learn watching your own back garden. Ornithologist Mike Toms has spent a year avidly observing his own garden, and the result is a comprehensive picture of the lives of garden birds. From the crowded yet quiet January garden populated by migratory fieldfares and bramblings, to the riotous gardens of spring, filled with songbirds competing for mates, the garden ecosystem changes throughout the year. Learn to spot these changes, to greet the arrival of the swifts in May and the new crop of fledgling goldfinches and blackbirds in June, and you'll find a new world opening up to you. A Garden Bird's Year is the perfect introduction to this world. Supremely readable, it explains biology and behaviour to paint a picture of the lives of common bird species, while also offering practical information for watching and feeding the birds in your own backyard. Toms details birds' preferences for particular plants, seeds and feeders, so you can learn to attract different species to your own garden. He also charts fascinating recent adaptations - urban birds sleep later than their rural counterparts, probably because cities are on average a few degrees warmer, and they sing either earlier or later, to avoid competing with local traffic; and the balance of migratory birds to Britain is being affected by the world's changing climate. Many species of garden birds are threatened, but there is much that each one of us can do to support them, to attract them, and to help them thrive through the year.

Making the Most of a Good Thing Sharing Your Home and Life with a pet bird from the parrot family can be a joy that must be experienced to be appreciated. Whether your parrot pal is a lordly macaw, a tiny budgie or any of the beautiful Amazons, African greys, cockatoos or other beloved species in between, life can be beautiful when communication works. And that is what "The Pleasure of Their Company: An Owner's Guide to Parrot Training" can do for the relationship.

The text discusses the reasons for training a parrot, how an owner's behavior influences training results, working with baby birds and weanlings, three basic obedience skills and training techniques for adult parrots. You will find chapters on potty training to help your parrot clean up its act; speech training that makes your parrot more fun to be with and some intriguing examples of parrots really knowing what they're saying; trick training that allows a parrot to use its nimble mind and dexterous body together and some valuable insights on fun and games with your parrot to enjoy your relationship fully. With delightful illustrations by parrot lover Richard Cole and a wealth of practical guidance, "The Pleasure of Their Company" is the gift you give yourself and your parrot to make life better for you both.

At last, a book for pet owners that focuses on administering first aid to birds. You'll not only learn step-by-step information on emergency situations bird owners might encounter, you'll also learn how to quickly save your bird's life by taking action, and how to prevent emergencies by feeding your bird a balanced diet, regularly trimming his wings and nails and bird-proofing your home. First Aid for Birds is written by an expert and includes instructions on monitoring your bird's health by regular veterinary visits and observing your bird daily for signs of illness. Best of all, the book is filled with color photos, info-packed sidebars and fun facts to make caring for your pet bird easy and enjoyable.

This is our seventh set of Happy, Healthy Pet titles. These are books pet owners can turn to for the essential information they need to raise a healthy pet. All books contain information on: feedinghousinggroominghealth carewhat to expect from the petbasic trainingAs our series expands and focuses on different kinds of pets, the emphasis remains on making the pet a companion. In addition, owners of more unusual pets will particularly appreciate the expert advice in these books because professional care for their animals may be difficult to come by. As always, the instruction is from experts-people who know their pet intimately, but also remember what it was like to have one for the first time. Happy, Healthy Pet guides are rich with professional quality color photos and are designed to be enjoyable and easy to learn from.

Zebra finches are very close to wild birds in their behaviors, and the natural history and behavior of these birds is discussed in detail. Zebra finches mate for life and do not do well living alone, so most often they are purchased in pairs. The book takes this into consideration right from the start, and all care and handling information is offered for two or more birds. This includes detailed information on breeding, which is extremely popular with owners of exotic finches. Proper housing, routine care, and in-depth information on nutrition and feeding are included. Possible health problems are also covered.
A Resource section provides information on birds clubs, books and magazines and useful Internet sites.

This is our seventh set of "Happy, Healthy Pet" titles. Like the others, they are books pet owners can turn to for the essential information they need to raise a healthy pet. All books contain information on

• feeding
• housing
• grooming
• health care
• what to expect from the pet
• basic trainingAs our series expands and focuses on different kinds of pets, the emphasis remains on making the pet a companion.

In addition, owners of more unusual pets will particularly appreciate the expert advice in these books because professional care for their animals may be difficult to come by. As always, the instruction is from experts--people who know their pet intimately, but also remember what it was like to have one for the first time. "Happy, Healthy Pet" guides are rich with professional quality color photos and are designed to be enjoyable and easy to learn from.

This is our seventh set of "Happy, Healthy Pet" titles. Like the others, they are books pet owners can turn to for the essential information they need to raise a healthy, happy pet. All books contain information on:

• feeding
• grooming
• housing
• health care
• what to expect from the pet
• basic training

"Happy, Healthy Pet" guides are rich with professional quality color photos and are designed to be enjoyable and easy to learn from.

Featuring the

• Best Information
• Best Resources
• Best Photos

With "The Parrot: An Owners Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet" you will discover easy ways to provide the very best in care and training for your bird. An avian expert offers straightforward advice so that you can create a thriving relationship with your new family member.

The Parrot offers:

• Completely up-to-date resources, including top Web sites of interest to bird owners
• Information on choosing the best parrot for your lifestyle
• Ways to mentally stimulate and entertain your quizzical pet bird
• Advice on the best nutrition to keep your parrot healthy and long-lived
• Answers to your most pressing bird-behavior questions
• Full-color photographs of parrots in a variety of settings

"My Parrot, My Friend" is a straightforward book that addresses a growing need for parrot owners and their birds. When difficulties develop in the home, or a clash in avian and human natures makes for unhappy birds and angry owners, many times the sad consequence is painful termination of what could have been a long-term, joyful relationship. Happily, there is an effective remedy and it lies in a program of behavior modification. That program is fully detailed in this well-written, wonderfully detailed text. In addition, the text helps readers to find the right bird so problems can be sidestepped altogether, and it explains which birds not to consider and why.

"My Parrot, My Friend" shows how parrots grow and develop, and how behavioral problems can start. The book explains behavioral modification, how it works, and how to apply it in specific situations. Case studies and an examination of pertinent issues add considerable interest to the text. These and other special features make this one of the most indispensable reference books you will ever use.

"My Parrot, My Friend" is the first book to approach the subject in such depth for the lay reader. It will make a significant difference in how pet owners view and relate to their birds and will point the way to happy endings where once there were none.

Birdkeeping is becoming increasingly popular, but could it threaten good health? This book discusses the evi- dence suggesting that keeping pet birds is a strong risk factor for lung cancer. Its relation to a number of other endpoints, including death before age 60 and spontaneous abortion, is also examined. In addition, the book looks at the diseases that can be transmitted from birds to man - a fairly unknown field in general medicine. For instance, birds are a source of airborne particles that can cause allergic reactions in humans. People who keep birds as pets tend to have a higher incidence of shortness of breath, colds, sore throats and other flu-like symptoms than those in households without birds. The evidence presented in this book is the result of a ten-year general practice survey. Some recommendations for future research are given.