This volume is an invaluable resource, impressive in scope & depth & complemented with tables. Bird is a well-known ornithologist who teaches at McGill Univ., & is the Dir. of the Avian Science & Conservation Centre. The wealth of knowledge in these pages is highlighted by a listing of bird species worldwide, & also includes detailed info. on all aspects of avian biology -- including anatomy, physiology (circulation, digestion, respiration, flight, etc.), reproduction (territory, egg-laying, incubation, hatching), & mortality (longevity, diseases) -- as well as tips for backyard birders, an extensive glossary, & a complete guide to all aspects of the ornithological community, from organizations & societies to Internet & electronic resources.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Editorial Reviews
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This handbook provides a concise, but remarkably inclusive, reference to the world of birds, bird-watchers, and ornithologists. ---- Charles Leck, American Reference Book Annual 2000
The wealth of basic information presented on birding is especially hard to find in standard works on the subject. ---- Science Books and Films --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
The wealth of basic information presented on birding is especially hard to find in standard works on the subject. ---- Science Books and Films --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book belongs in every bird watcher's library.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bird Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Essential Facts and Figures of the World's Birds (Paperback)
The amount of information in The Bird Almanac, and the diversity, is staggering, and there is far too much to cover in a short review. The information covers both birds and bird watching, starting with a complete checklist of the world's birds. There is a chart showing the suggested fossil history of birds. The sections on anatomy include not only the traditional bird diagram, but also labeled drawings of the skeleton, digestive system, brain, eyeball, feather tracts, and other systems. There are charts on heart rates, metabolic rates, hearing range, and number of taste buds in various species, and dozens of others in the physiographic section. There are also charts on wing loading, flight speed, daily flight distance, average altitudes of migrating birds, and the ability of birds to transport prey after capture. The mortality section includes charts on the relative occurrence of a long list of diseases and lists of threatened and endangered birds.There is a section on biggest, smallest, longest, most traveled birds, etc. A section on who's who in bird biology and conservation includes not only the expected names, but important figures less well-known. Do you want to know who was president of the AOU in 1938, or any other year? Who are the recipients of the Elliot Coues Award? It's all here, as well as which teams have won the World Series of Birding and who has won the Duck Stamp competition. There is a section on resources for bird watchers that includes a list of the world's bird watching and ornithological organizations, with addresses, lists of Internet resources, a compilation of the world's bird watching magazines, lists of rare bird alerts, tour companies, CD ROMs, and on and on. This is one of the most impressive, and useful, one-volume collection of information about birds and bird watching available anywhere. Readers will find themselves delving into it for pleasure over and over, and it will be one of the most frequently used references on the shelf. My copy is going on the shelf next to the Birder's Handbook and the small set of references that are my first line of defense whenever anyone asks a question or I need a quick answer. This book belongs in every bird watcher's library.-Eirik A.T. Blom
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
OF INTEREST TO ALL WHO LOVE BIRD. ESSENTIAL FOR THE HARDCORE BIRDER.,
This review is from: The Bird Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Essential Facts and Figures of the World's Birds (Paperback)
To begin with, it must be understood that this is not a field guide for the identification of birds by any stretch of the term. While this is one of the most useful books in my ever growing collection, and it certainly is of value to anyone interested in birding; I must say that it is and will be of more value to the truly hardcore birder; the birder who is interest in counts and counting. This aspect of birding is important to me as it is for many, but the casual backyard birder may find some of the information found in this volume less than useful in a general sense. That being said...
There is a vast amount of information packed into the 460 page volume (of very fine print, I might add). The book starts with a World Checklist for birds. This section in broken down by family and then gives us the common name along with the scientific name. Each bird is coded to indicate the region it is found, conservation dependency, stats of its current vulnerability as to extinction and or rarity. the book then continues with and gives American and British equivalencies in names of birds, classification of the Class Aves, Suggested fossil history, anatomy, physiology, flight patterns, which include wing and feather functions, reproduction, mortality which includes longevity and vulnerability to disease, threatened and endangered bird species, records in the bird world, history of who's who in bird biology and conservation. presidents of ornithological societies and bird-watching organizations, birding record holders and general sections on birding, attracting birds and then has a major section on resources for bird lovers including birds from around the world; websites, publications, audio recordings, videos, festivals in North America, tour operators, and resources for ornithologists. The book is also peppered with a myriad of obscure but extremely interesting facts and figures. This work is certainly a numbers books, make no mistake. For me the first section dealing with a World Check List and the last section dealing with resources are the most important parts of the book and the ones that I use the most. While the rest of the work is certainly interesting, the data recorded can be found elsewhere, although I must admit that it is certainly convenient to have all this obscure data in one place. I know of no other publication that does this. It must be noted though that almost all of the information is subject to change almost on a yearly basis. The number of species listed here change almost from year to year as groups and especially subgroups are reconsidered. The diehard counter must keep up to date with this information and update their book as needed. The same hold true for the various resources listed here. There are new publications, CDs. studies and sources being made available almost on a monthly basis. Birding is not a static endeavor. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR DATA BASE CURRENT, in particular as related to the check list. This is of general interest to all those interested in birds and birding and is of specific interest to those who are really, really serious about their subject. Don Blankenship The Ozarks
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Bird Facts & Useful Info for Birders,
By
This review is from: The Bird Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Essential Facts and Figures of the World's Birds (Paperback)
In "The Bird Almanac", ornithologist David Bird has attempted to create a reference volume packed with a wide variety of information that bird enthusiasts of every level of expertise will find interesting and useful. The first 213 pages of this 460-page book is a World Checklist of Birds, which lists all of the world's bird species by their order and includes notation as to their threatened, endangered, or other status where it is applicable. This is followed by 70 pages dedicated to information about the birds themselves. There is a useful chart giving American and British equivalencies in names of birds. There are diagrams, definitions, and many fascinating statistics on bird anatomy and physiology. There are more diagrams and statistics relating to eggs and incubation as well as statistics on mortality and avian diseases. And there are several pages listing truly amazing world records among birds that are sure to make a trivia buff out of you. The next 142 pages contain information about birding, past and present. Included is a Who's Who in Bird Biology and Conservation, information about major ornithological organizations, the birding codes of ethics from both the American Birding Association and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and tips for attracting and feeding birds. There are also extensive listings of bird-watching and bird-banding organizations around the globe, birding hotlines, magazines, newsgroups, festivals, and tours. And there is a glossary of terms in the back of the book. Most of the information in "The Bird Almanac" pertains to North America and Great Britain. The book might have been more aptly named "The Birding Almanac", since it contains more information on birding than about the birds themselves. But the bird information that is here is quite fascinating and has been gleaned from so many different sources that it would be difficult to find elsewhere. Where else could I learn that a peregrine falcon can dive at speeds of 117 mph (wow!), that the largest nesting colony contained 136 million passenger pigeons (scary), or that a group of cormorants is called a "gulp" (funny)? Ornithologists, birders, backyard bird watchers, students, conservationists, and those whose curiosity is stirred by fascinating facts are sure to find something of interest in "The Bird Almanac".
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