Parrots are common pets, but not many people know that some parrots may outlive their owners! These amazing animals are the world’s longest-living birds. Readers will learn why parrots are not often prey for other animals, and how taking care of them in captivity can extend their lives even longer. Colorful photographs show off these bright, feathered birds at all ages, showing where they live and how they stay alive in some of the most dangerous places on Earth.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is the inspiring story of how one man found his life’s work—and true love—among a gang of wild parrots roosting in one of America’s most picturesque urban settings. Mark Bittner was down on his luck. He’d gone to San Francisco at the age of twenty-one to take a stab at a music career, but he hadn’t had much success. After many years as an odd-jobber in the area, he accepted work as a housekeeper for an elderly woman. The gig came with a rent-free studio apartment on the city’s famed Telegraph Hill, which had somehow become home to a flock of brilliantly colored wild parrots. In this unforgettable story, Bittner recounts how he became fascinated by the birds and made up his mind to get to know them and gain their trust. He succeeds to such a degree that he becomes the local wild parrot expert and a tourist attraction. People can’t help gawking at the man who, during daily feedings, stands with parrots perched along both arms and atop his head. When a documentary filmmaker comes along to capture the phenomenon on film, the story takes a surprising turn, and Bittner’s life truly takes flight.

A detailed, authoritative yet highly readable monograph on one of Britain's best-loved farmland birds, the Lapwing. With its striking green-black and white plumage and distinctive pee-wit call, the Lapwing is one of Britain's best-known birds. Lapwings depend on agricultural land to breed and are considered a barometer of the health of this habitat; the population has crashed over recent decades, partly due to changes in farming practices. In winter, Lapwings switch to coastal areas and to wetlands, including those in suburban areas, where large, noisy flocks can gather. Michael Shrubb's The Lapwing is a thorough review of Lapwing biology contains sections on population dynamics, feeding ecology, habitat use, migration, and conservation; there is an impressively detailed review of our current understanding of breeding biology, plus discussion of some other species in the genus. The Lapwing is a superb addition to the Poyser list. Of interest to both amateur naturalists, who will enjoy insights into the birds' lives, and to academics, who will appreciate the broad overview of current research, this title will remain the definitive work on the species for many years to come.

Surprisingly, for one of Europe's commoner birds of prey, relatively little is known about some aspects of the Kestrel's behaviour and associations. Dr Village's book leaves us far better informed and is an inviting combination of readability and scholarship that reflects his dedication and enthusiasm for Falco tinnunculus. The author studied the Kestrel for several years in Scottish hill country and sheepwalk, then in two agricultural areas of eastern England, but his book also includes much valuable observation and data from Europe and elsewhere. Its twenty-one chapters cover all aspects of the Kestrel's life cycle, with special emphasis on breeding performance, population densities and turnover, and age and sex ratios. A section of over seventy tables of supporting data concludes the book. Keith Brockie has contributed over 30 illustrations which admirably enhance the pages.

The author of The Arab of the Future chronicles the hilarious and heartbreaking true life of a young girl growing up in Paris. "Funny, well-observed...contains immense daring and depth...Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation." —Observer, "Graphic Novel of the Month" Once a week for three years, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf had a chat with his friend’s outgoing young daughter, Esther, in which she told him about her family, her school, her friends, her hopes, her dreams, and her fears. After each meeting, he would create a one-page comic strip based on what she had said. Esther’s Notebooks gathers 156 of those strips, spanning Esther’s life from ages nine through twelve, giving us a delightful look into the daily dramas of this thoughtful, intelligent, and high-spirited girl. As The Guardian noted: “Each page of Esther’s Notebooks is self-contained—there’s usually a neat punchline—but read them all, and you come to see that Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation: their hopes, dreams and cultural references; the way that their personalities, backgrounds—many of the children portrayed have parents who are immigrants—and preconceived ideas about sexuality begin to play out even before they’ve begun secondary school. The result is a bit like a cartoon version of Michael Apted’s landmark TV series, Up. These funny, well-observed comics are fantastically daring.”