Birds, hormones, and extraordinary behavior: The story of the tiny but mighty golden-collared manakin of Panama This book is the story of a remarkable bird, the golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus) of Panama. Males of this species perform one of the most elaborate, physically complex, and noisy courtship displays of any animal on the planet. Barney A. Schlinger delves into the specialized neurons, muscles, bones, and hormonal systems underlying the manakin's unique courtship behavior, creating a rich life-history account that integrates field observations and evolutionary biology with behavioral ecology, anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and general ornithology. The personal lives of investigators and the natural history of the Panamanian rainforest provide context for this account of the bird's fascinating behavior. Schlinger clearly and approachably explains basic concepts in disciplines such as avian anatomy, endocrinology, sexual differentiation, and the neurobiology of song and aeroacoustics, offering readers a window into the biology of this exuberant bird.

A lively, rich natural history of Hawaiian birds that challenges existing ideas about what constitutes biocultural nativeness and belonging This natural history takes readers on a thousand-year journey as it explores the Hawaiian Islands’ beautiful birds and a variety of topics including extinction, evolution, survival, conservationists and their work, and, most significantly, the concept of belonging. Author Daniel Lewis, an award-winning historian and globe-traveling amateur birder, builds this lively text around the stories of four species—the Stumbling Moa-Nalo, the Kaua‘I ‘O‘o, the Palila, and the Japanese White-Eye. Lewis offers innovative ways to think about what it means to be native and proposes new definitions that apply to people as well as to birds. Being native, he argues, is a relative state influenced by factors including the passage of time, charisma, scarcity, utility to others, short-term evolutionary processes, and changing relationships with other organisms. This book also describes how bird conservation started in Hawai‘i, and the naturalists and environmentalists who did extraordinary work.

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An authoritative and entertaining exploration of Australia’s distinctive birds and their unheralded role in global evolution Renowned for its gallery of unusual mammals, Australia is also a land of extraordinary birds. But unlike the mammals, the birds of Australia flew beyond the continent’s boundaries and around the globe many millions of years ago. This eye-opening book tells the dynamic but little-known story of how Australia provided the world with songbirds and parrots, among other bird groups, why Australian birds wield surprising ecological power, how Australia became a major evolutionary center, and why scientific biases have hindered recognition of these discoveries. From violent, swooping magpies to tool-making cockatoos, Australia’s birds are strikingly different from birds of other lands—often more intelligent and aggressive, often larger and longer-lived. Tim Low, a renowned biologist with a rare storytelling gift, here presents the amazing evolutionary history of Australia’s birds. The story of the birds, it turns out, is inseparable from the story of the continent itself and also the people who inhabit it.

This guide is a successor to the much acclaimed Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by two of the same authors. Covering Pakistan, the superb plates are accompanied by a succinct text highlighting identification, voice, habitat, altitudinal range, distribution and status. The text is on facing pages to the plates, for easy reference and there are distribution maps for every species. Like previous guides covering Nepal, Bhutan, Northern India and Southern India, this guide is a perfect size for use in the field and will be an essential companion when visiting this region.

(back cover) For lovers of birds and trivia, this captivating book features a wealth of fascinating facts, figures, and folklore about our feathered friends. It's beautifully illustrated throughout with colorful artworks, photographs, and diagrams. Over 400 nuggets of information drawn from nature, science, history, and mythology are sure to astound, amuse, and entertain Find the answers to these burning questions: How light is a feather? Are owls really wise? Why do birds migrate? How do they know where to go? Be amazed by the weird world of these winged wonders, from the largest ever recorded egg--equivalent to 220 chicken eggs--to the world's strangest bird, which has claws on its wings Includes practical advice such as how to attract birds to your garden and how to teach a parrot to talk, and encourages a new appreciation of these awesome creatures of the air (front flap) Birds are the most homogeneous and recognizable of all animal groups--they all have feathers and lay eggs, many sing, and most fly. In almost any environment, whether in a town or the countryside, it is difficult not to see numerous types of bird. Of all outdoor hobbies, bird-watching is growing at the fastest rate, and many people enjoy keeping birds as pets. Because birds are colorful, vocal, and daylight-loving creatures, they have been observed and studied for thousands of years. From carvings in Egyptian caves to today's movies and books, bird images are everywhere. And for good reason--they are fascinating. They hear and see much better than humans can, have developed the power of flight, and are found everywhere in the world except the center of Antarctica. As homogeneous as they are, many birds have diversified in amazing ways, from penguins that incubate their eggs on top of their feet for 60 days to brush turkeys that do not sit on their eggs at all, and from the giant albatross of the oceans to the tiny hummingbird of the tropics. A treasure trove of varied information, this book provides the answers to many puzzling questions about our feathered friends. With its entirely random organization, Amazing Birds is perfect for browsing through and stumbling upon unexpected nuggets of fascinating information juxtaposed with strange stories and practical tips. (back flap) Dr. Roger Lederer is Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences at California State University, Chico, where he has taught for more than 30 years, including courses in ornithology, conservation, and ecology. Dr. Lederer has given many public presentations and workshops, and has published more than 30 scientific papers and books, including two field guides to birds. Focusing on environmental education in recent years, Dr. Lederer served as the first Jack Rawlins Professor of Environmental Literacy at California State University, Chico.

Cognitive Evolution provides an in-depth exploration of the history and development of cognition, from the beginning of life on Earth to present-day humans. Drawing together evolutionary and comparative research, this book presents a unique perspective on the evolution of human cognition. Adopting an information processing perspective – that is, from inputs to outputs, with all the mental processes in between, Boles provides a systematic overview of the evolutionary development of cognition and of its sensation, movement, and perception components. The book is supported by long-established evolutionary theories and backed up by a wealth of recent research from the growing field of cognitive evolution and cognitive neuroscience to provide a comprehensive text on the subject. Cognitive Evolution is an essential read for advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students of cognitive and evolutionary psychology.