Wood Thrush, Kentucky Warbler, Eastern Kingbirdmigratory songbirds are disappearing at a frightening rate. By some estimates, we may already have lost almost half the songbirds that filled the skies only 40 years ago. Bridget Stutchbury, in a narrative as colourful as the creatures she studies, demonstrates why this decline should concern us all. The expert ornithologist and naturalist convincingly argues that songbirds truly are the canaries in the coal mineexcept the coal mine looks a lot like Earth and we are the hapless excavators. 
Following the birds on their 10,000-kilometre migratory journey, Stutchbury looks at the most threatening factors: pesticides, still a major concern decades after Rachel Carson first raised the alarm; the destruction of vital habitat, from the boreal forests of Canada to the tropical jungles of Brazil to the vast grasslands of Argentina; coffee plantations, which push birds out of their forest refuges so we can have our morning fix; the bright lights and structures in our cities, which prove a minefield for migrating birds; the notorious cowbirds that force songbirds to act as surrogate mothers to their own voracious young; and global warming. We may well wake up in the near future and hear no songbirds singing. We won’t only be missing their cheery calls, we’ll be missing a vital part of our ecosystem. Without songbirds, our forests face insect infestations, and our trees, flowers and gardens lose a crucial element in their reproductive cycle. What does this very real threat mean for our ecosystem, and ultimately, us?
A perfect full moon rose in the east as I paddled back to shore before it got dark, the martins safely tucked in for the night. Big storms had been brewing over land since late afternoon, and . . . a distant lightning bolt lit up the bottom of the clouds briefly. I was tired and heading home at day’s end, but as I paddled against a headwind, I thought about the hundreds of thousands of songbirds that must be hidden in the forests and fields around me, only minutes away from taking to the sky. One by one, the warblers, tanagers, thrushes and countless others would be in the air and heading southward with uncanny navigation skills, not knowing exactly where they would land, but driven by instinct born of the successful migration of their ancestors. fromSilence of the Songbirds

Silence Of The Songbirds

Science & Math

Stutchbury, Bridget

Biological Sciences

HarperCollins, Publishers

From fall to spring, J.A. Baker set out to track the daily comings and goings of a pair of peregrine falcons across the flat fen lands of eastern England. He followed the birds obsessively, observing them in the air and on the ground, in pursuit of their prey, making a kill, eating, and at rest, activities he describes with an extraordinary fusion of precision and poetry. And as he continued his mysterious private quest, his sense of human self slowly dissolved, to be replaced with the alien and implacable consciousness of a hawk.It is this extraordinary metamorphosis, magical and terrifying, that these beautifully written pages record.

The Peregrine

Baker, J.A.

Nature & Ecology

Harper&Row

A field guide to the birds of Britain and Europe, [hardcover] Peterson, Roger Tory [Jan 01, 1974]

A field guide to the birds of Britain and Europe,

Sports & Outdoors

Peterson,Roger Tory

Field Guides

Collins

Descriptions of more than 400 species of birds found in the islands of the West Indies include local names of birds, notes on migrants and winter residents -- as well as birds that breed there -- and voice, habitat, and range information. More than 340 illustrations aid in identification.

Birds of the West Indies

Bond, James

Houghton, Mifflin Company

The birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East,

Heinzel, Hermann

A Field Guide to the Birds of Galapagos

Michael Philip Harris

Collins, St James's Place London

Provides descriptions of the characteristics, habits, distribution, and migration patterns of African mammals.

A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa

DORST, Jean

THE ARK'S ANNIVERSARY

Biographies & Memoirs

DURRELL,GERALD

Professionals & Academics

James Bond

The birds of Britain and Europe: With North Africa and the Middle East

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