Written with the non-specialist in mind, this guide is a must-have for flower lovers, hikers, tour guides and tourists – anyone interested in identifying the wild flowers that grace the Cape Peninsula.

Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula covers the most remarkable and commonly seen wild flowers of Table Mountain, Silvermine and Cape Point. The book was originally published as Common Wild Flowers of Table Mountain in 2007, then revised in 2013 to include the flowers of Silvermine.

This new edition offers:

• 360 (previously 208) of the region’s most remarkable and commonly seen wild flowers
• Clear photographs of all featured flowers and concise, informative text
• Flowers grouped according to colour, to help with quick ID
• Walking routes in the Peninsula’s famed reserves, plotted on 3 clear maps
• Illustrated glossary of terms

Whether you are watching an Eider soar low over the water or listening to the iconic sound of a flock of geese flying overhead, chances are you will already be familiar with many different species of ducks, geese and swans found around the UK. But can you tell a Goosander from a Red-breasted Merganser? Or confidently distinguish between a Pink-footed Goose and a Greylag Goose? The varied habitats in the British Isles provide a home to many ducks, geese and swans that live here year-round, as well as the enormous number of birds that arrive in winter. RSPB ID Spotlight Ducks, Geese and Swans is a reliable fold-out chart with illustrations of 30 of the UK's most familiar wildfowl by renowned artist Stephen Message. - Species are grouped by family and helpfully labelled to assist with identification - Artworks are shown side-by-side for quick comparison and easy reference at home or in the field - The reverse of the chart provides information on the habitats, behaviour, life cycles and diets of our ducks, geese and swans, as well as the conservation issues they are facing and how the RSPB is working to support them - Information on successful preservation campaigns of UK wetlands and how to take part in the Wetland Birds Survey is also included The ID Spotlight charts help wildlife enthusiasts identify and learn more about our most common species using accurate colour illustrations and informative, accessible text.

Our landscape has long been shaped by its native tree cover, whether pine, oak, beech or birch. These habitats are full of life, and you'll see many different bird species in all kinds of woodlands throughout the year. But do you know a Nuthatch from a Treecreeper? And can you tell the difference between a Goshawk and a Common Buzzard when it's soaring overhead? The UK's woodlands are home to a diverse collection of our most beautiful wild bird species. RSPB ID Spotlight Woodland Birds is a reliable fold-out chart that presents illustrations of 63 of our most widespread and familiar woodland birds by renowned artist Stephen Message. * Species are grouped by family and helpfully labelled to assist with identification * Artworks are shown side by side for quick comparison and easy reference at home or in the field * The reverse of the chart provides information on the habitats, behaviour, life cycles and diets of our woodland birds, as well as the conservation issues they are facing and how the RSPB is working to support them * Information on research and conservation projects aimed at improving habitats for vulnerable woodland birds is also included The ID Spotlight charts help wildlife enthusiasts identify and learn more about our most common species using accurate colour illustrations and informative, accessible text.

Biological invaders represent one of the primary threats to the maintenance of global biodiversity, human health, and the success of human economic enterprises. The continuing globalization of our society ensures that the need to understand the process of biological invasion will only increase in the future. There is also a growing recognition that the study of biological invaders provides a unique insight into basic questions in ecology and evolution.
The study of exotic birds has had a particularly long history and has come to represent a fascinating intersection between the study of biological invasions, avian conservation biology, and basic principles of ecology and evolution. Avian Invasions summarizes and synthesizes this unique historical record and unravels the insights that the study of exotic birds brings to all three of these research strands. It includes chapters on the well-known contributions of exotic bird study to ecological science, and on the post-establishment evolution of introduced bird populations. The result is the most comprehensive picture yet of the invasion process.
Avian Invasions is aimed at professional avian biologists and ornithologists as well as graduate students of avian ecology, evolution and conservation. It also appeals to a more general audience of invasion ecologists.

The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you're not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as "majestic" and "noble" yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the United States' founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction. Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers and the lives of bald eagles themselves-monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world's finest parents-The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird's wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale.

An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and animal welfare reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock. Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office. From a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota, Danovich interviews the people breeding, training, healing and, most importantly, adoring chickens. With more than 60 billion chickens living on industrial farms around the world, they're easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovich's reporting reveals the hidden cleverness, quiet sweetness and irresistible personalities of these birds, as well as the complex human-chicken relationship that has evolved over centuries. This glimpse into the lives of backyard chickens doesn't just help us to understand chickens better - it also casts light back on ourselves and what we've ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovich's own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.

Evolutionary biomechanics is the study of evolution through the analysis of biomechanical systems. Its unique advantage is the precision with which physical constraints and performance can be predicted from first principles. Instead of reviewing the entire breadth of the biomechanical literature, a few key examples are explored in depth as vehicles for discussing fundamental concepts, analytical techniques, and evolutionary theory. Each chapter develops a conceptual theme, developing the underlying theory and techniques required for analyses in evolutionary biomechanics. Examples from terrestrial biomechanics, metabolic scaling, and bird flight are used to analyse how physics constrains the design space that natural selection is free to explore, and how adaptive evolution finds solutions to the trade-offs between multiple complex conflicting performance objectives. Evolutionary Biomechanics is suitable for graduate level students and professional researchers in the fields of biomechanics, physiology, evolutionary biology and palaeontology. It will also be of relevance and use to researchers in the physical sciences and engineering.

Birds have colonized almost every terrestrial habitat on the planet - from the poles to the tropics, and from deserts to high mountain tops. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Birds focuses on our current understanding of the unique physiological characteristics of birds that are of particular interest to ornithologists, but also have a wider biological relevance.
An introductory chapter covers the basic avian body plan and their still-enigmatic evolutionary history. The focus then shifts to a consideration of the essential components of that most fundamental of avian attributes: the ability to fly. The emphasis here is on feather evolution and development, flight energetics and aerodynamics, migration, and as a counterpoint, the curious secondary evolution of flightlessness that has occurred in several lineages. This sets the stage for subsequent chapters, which present specific physiological topics within a strongly ecological and environmental framework. These include gas exchange, thermal and osmotic balance, 'classical' life history parameters (male and female reproductive costs, parental care and investment in offspring, and fecundity versus longevity tradeoffs), feeding and digestive physiology, adaptations to challenging environments (high altitude, deserts, marine habitats, cold), and neural specializations (notably those important in foraging, long-distance navigation, and song production).
Throughout the book classical studies are integrated with the latest research findings. Numerous important and intriguing questions await further work, and the book concludes with a discussion of methods (emphasizing cutting-edge technology), approaches, and future research directions.

In this compelling book, Rien Fertel tells the story of humanity's complicated and often brutal relationship with the brown pelican over the past century. This beloved bird with the mythically bottomless belly-to say nothing of its prodigious pouch-has been deemed a living fossil and the most dinosaur-like of creatures. The pelican adorns the Louisiana state flag, serves as a religious icon of sacrifice, and stars in the famous parting shot of Jurassic Park, but, most significantly, spotlights our tenuous connection with the environment in which it flies, feeds, and roosts-the coastal United States. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt inaugurated the first national wildlife refuge at Pelican Island, Florida, in order to rescue the brown pelican, among other species, from the plume trade. Despite such protections, the ubiquity of synthetic "agents of death," most notably DDT, in the mid-twentieth century sent the brown pelican to the list of endangered species. By the mid-1960s, not one viable pelican nest remained in all of Louisiana. Authorities declared the state bird locally extinct. Conservation efforts-including an outlandish but well-planned birdnapping-saved the brown pelican, generating one of the great success stories in animal preservation. However, the brown pelican is once again under threat, particularly along Louisiana's coast, due to land loss and rising seas. For centuries, artists and writers have portrayed the pelican as a bird that pierces its breast to feed its young, symbolizing saintly piety. Today, the brown pelican gives itself in other ways, sacrificed both by and for the environment as a bellwether bird-an indicator species portending potential disasters that await. Brown Pelican combines history and first-person narrative to complicate, deconstruct, and reassemble our vision of the bird, the natural world, and ourselves.

Join an incredible mynah bird on an adventure as he makes his way in the big city. When a little mynah bird is stolen from the jungle, he uses his amazing gift of mimicry to fool everyone in his path. This funny and charming book by Uwe Timm features fabulous illustrations by Axel Scheffler A celebration of a small bird doing big things! Axel Scheffler is the illustrator of a whole host of beloved classic children's books such as Stick Man and The Gruffalo

Birds are intelligent, sociable creatures that exhibit a wide array of behaviours - 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, How To Read a Bird presents engaging vignettes about the private lives of birds, all explained in an evolutionary context. 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.

Most of the world's exquisite and rare bird species are found in tropical rainforests - the Amazon, Sumatra, Borneo, Daintree Rainforest in Australia, and the Congo basin in Africa. These lush, wet biospheres are home to some of the most colourful creatures on our planet. Did you know that parrots can live for 80 years or more? Or that most tropical birds are omnivores and will eat seeds, nuts, fruit and insects, while a few will eat small lizards or animals? The world's longest parrot is the stunningly bright hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), checking in at more than a metre from tip to tail. From the screeching red-and-green macaw to the majestic great hornbill, from the rainbow lorikeet of northern Queensland to the endangered Spix's macaw of the Amazonian rainforest, Tropical Birds explores the fascinating lifecycles, diets and, where applicable, migratory patterns, of hundreds of species from every part of the tropical belt. With full captions explaining the origins, habitat and behaviour of these exotic creatures, Tropical Birds is a concise exploration in 180 brilliant photographs.

A beautifully illustrated pocket-size field guide to the birds of North America--a must-have for any birder's backpack or home library. Birds: An Illustrated Field Guide is a compact, beautifully illustrated field guide to 50 North America's most popular birds. Inside this elegant hardcover, you'll find profiles on individual species, each showcasing a full-page illustration, plus a description of bird habits and flight patterns, information on where to look for birds and how--and when--to see them, and, last but not least, instructions for building your very own birding "life list." Discover the wonderful world of North American birds, including: - The Mountain Bluebird - The Black-Capped Chickadee - The Carolina Wren - The Red-Winged Blackbird - The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Visually stunning, Birds: An Illustrated Field Guide is an engrossing overview of North America's remarkable and diverse birds. You'll find opportunities for discovery on every page.

SASOL First Field Guide to Common Birds of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the birdlife of the region.

With the help of full-colour photo graphs and distribution maps, and easy-to-read text, the young adult and budding naturalist will be able to identify the more common bird species found in southern Africa, discover where they live, and learn about their unique feeding and nesting habits.

A jam-packed puzzle and trivia book about the birds in Britain, in collaboration with the RSPB. Can you tell your rook from your crow? Do you know the collective noun for a group of goldfinches? Or where a willow warbler goes when it migrates? A must-buy for any bird enthusiast or bird-watching novice, this puzzle book is filled with questions, word games and brainteasers that will test your ornithological knowledge and reveal a treasure trove of incredible facts about our feathered friends - covering topics such as garden birds, coastal and country birds, behaviour, biology, culture, rare birds and bird migration. Featuring over 150 puzzles, from quiz questions to illustrations of birds to test your identification knowledge, wordsearches and crosswords, as well as maps to explore flight patterns, the RSPB Great British Birdwatcher's Puzzle Book will put your friends and family through their paces, and on the path to becoming an ornithological expert.

This pocket-sized photographic guide to the birds of East Africa features 296 birds likely to be spotted in the region.

- Colourful photographs illustrate diagnostic features and plumage differences between male and female or breeding and non-breeding birds.

- Comparative photographs help differentiate between confusing species.

- Important distinguishing characteristics are highlighted in the text.

- Distribution maps and Swahili common names for all species are included.

- Introduction features a labelled bird diagram, habitat map, glossary and useful advice to birdwatchers.

An invaluable guide for visitors to national parks and the many areas in East Africa that are rich in birdlife.

The Roberts Bird Guide (2nd Edition) has gone to great trouble to concentrate on, and illustrate, difficult-to-identify species and family groups such as raptors, warblers, cisticolas and waders. Special attention has been given to make sure there is far greater coverage of male-female differences and there are also many more juvenile illustrations. Unlike all previously published southern African bird guides, this new edition will be scattered with informative photographs that are incorporated in the text pages and each plate illustration is augmented with an introduction. Apart from the approximately 240 plate spreads, the guide also has 12 photographic and illustrated double spreads that show head enlargements and other details. Plates are annotated far more definitively than other guides – highlighting key identification features, especially for difficult-to-identify species.

A comprehensive and authoritative illustrated guide to all of Chile's birds With its diverse range of habitats, Chile boasts a remarkable variety of breeding and visiting birds, from penguins to hummingbirds, making the country one of South America's top birding destinations. From the Chilean Tinamou and Juan Fernandez Firecrown to the Magellanic woodpecker, this comprehensive and authoritative field guide covers every one of Chile's 468 recorded species, including vagrants. All are illustrated in superb detail in 89 color plates, which feature every major plumage variation. Concise, facing-page species accounts describe key identification features, status, range, habitat, and voice, and accurate distribution maps are also provided for every species. The result is an essential field guide to the birds of this fascinating and beautiful country. Covers all 468 species recorded in Chile, including vagrants Features 89 color plates illustrating every species, with text and distribution maps on facing pages for quick and easy reference Includes concise species accounts describing key identification features, status, range, habitat, and voice

This book will take readers on a flying visit round the world, scouring the seven continents for the biggest, brightest and best birds on the planet. Urban Jungle creator Vicky Woodgate perfectly captures the brilliance of the bird world, each chapter taking us to a new continent and introducing birds from hummingbirds to hawks, and parrots to penguins. With a vintage travelogue feel, vibrant artwork and fascinating annotations, it is a book that will appeal to wildlife lovers from 7 to 70!

The definitive handbook on Scottish bird species The RSPB Handbook of Scottish Birds is the ideal reference for keen birdwatchers and visitors to Scotland alike, and this fully updated second edition is richer and more comprehensive than ever. Over 250 species are covered in detail with each account including information on identification, voice, habits, habitat, food, breeding, ecology, seasonal movements, population and conservation. More than 1,000 superb colour illustrations by some of the world's leading bird artists are integrated into the text for easy reference. This second edition features newly added Gaelic names, updated distribution maps, and also incorporates the latest information on the conservation status of each species. - Concise text offers a 'biography' of each species in simple, non-technical language - Practical, easy-to-use format - Updated distribution maps show resident species, summer and winter visitors, and passage migrants

Covering all the species of birds occurring in the areas bordering the Mediterranean, this guide is illustrated throughout with stunning photographs. The regions examined cover some of the most distinctive and birdrich habitats in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, places as popular with sun-seeking holidaymakers as they are with birders. Designed to appeal to both audiences, the guide features photographs of the region's birdlife, with concise descriptive text on facing pages. Digital manipulation of the photographs has been used to ensure a consistent depiction of light conditions, making comparisons between the images easier.