The Nighthawk's Evening: Notes of a Field Biologist is a work of science writing that will appeal to traditional birders, students, the new "punk birder" movement, and anyone who is fascinated by urban wildlife. It is the story of a woman who leaves her office job in Portland, Oregon, in her late-30s to become a wildlife biologist studying nighthawks. Birders have long puzzled over this acrobatic night-flying bird that nests on rooftops and flocks in the thousands as it treks from Alaska to Argentina and back every year. But what is like to hold a wild bird that few have seen up close? Nighthawks are strange animals, reptiles with feathers, sleepy if you stumble across them during the day, but quick, agile, and especially adept at survival. They have the ability to withstand extreme temperatures and adapt to many habitats, but, nonetheless, they are struggling in the Anthropocene. Gretchen Newberry investigates the hidden world of wildlife around us through this mysterious species. Her search for these illusive birds was an improvised and quixotic adventure. The book takes the reader along her journey, from beaches to forests, grasslands, and urban rooftops across North America. Along the way, she explores what nighthawks have meant to the peoples of North America, their uncertain future, and how their survival and role as bug eaters might address ongoing environmental issues at our farms and in our cities in an age of insect-borne diseases and agricultural pests.

Obligatory brood parasites are birds that reproduce by laying their eggs in the nests of other species. This book discusses the ecological and evolutionary aspects of this remarkable behavioural adaptation.

This book reviews what is known about the behaviour and population ecology of a popular shorebird, from a scientific conservation perspective. The plight of this bird highlights the many conflicts of interest in coastal zones, between human activities such as shellfishing, land reclamation, barrage construction, and industrial pollution, and the needs of wildlife for food and suitable habitats. As well as detailing Oystercatcher natural history - including the well-known specialization in feeding technique shown by individuals - the authors use their field studies of individual variations in behaviour to produce population models. This novel approach provides tools for predicting how populations will respond to the many environmental changes to which the coastal zone is subject. It thus can play a role in coastal management schemes that seek to balance the needs of people and wildlife, and suggests that the same methods can be applied in other situtations. The volume contains fifteen well-integrated chapters by an international team of contributors, and is fully referenced.

The Australian Zebra Finch is widely used by researchers and teachers in many scientific disciplines where it is the preferred subject for investigations ranging from anatomy and physiology to behavioural development and evolutionary ecology. This monograph is the first to synthesize the information on this colourful species that has accumulated during the past thirty years. It summarizes and integrates much of the laboratory work and places it in the context of the biology of the animals in the wild, with an emphasis on behaviour and ecology. This leads to a detailed understanding of Zebra Finch adaptations and life history that will further enhance the value of the species for researchers and students in behaviour, ecology, and other fields. Aviculturists who keep these attractive birds will also find much of interest in this book.

The main theme of Sexual Selection and the Barn Swallow is that sexual selection is important and affects many aspects of animal life such as mating behaviour, parental care, host-parasite interactions, and migration strategies. Birds with extravagant feather ornaments are the standard example of sexual selection. Here the selective advantages of a long tail are investigated for a common bird, the barn swallow, in the context of sexual selection theory. This study constitutes a major empirical test of the theoretical predictions and will be of especial interest to students of behavioural and evolutionary ecology.

Human animals are despoiling nature and causing a sixth extinction on Earth. Our natural environment is being compromised, and birds and other animals are disappearing at an alarming rate. Flight from Grace does not so much reveal the extent of the damage as ask and answer the perplexing question: why? This book traces human reverence for birds from the Stone Age and the New Stone Age, through the cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Peru, and Greece and through biblical traditions, up to its vestiges in the present. Richard Pope takes a hard look at Judaeo-Christian and ancient Greek thought to demonstrate how the emergence of anthropocentrism and belittling of nature led to our present-day ecological dilemma. Striking images of cultural artifacts -- many little-known -- together with extensive discussion of art, music, literature, and religion illustrate the paradox in our contemporary relationship to the natural world. Humanity, in moving from its paleolithic origins to modern times, has simultaneously distanced itself from and disenchanted nature. Suggesting that the replacement of an animistic worldview with a mechanistic one has led humans to deny their animality, Flight from Grace calls on readers to appreciate how our past relationship with birds might help transform our current relationship with nature.