You'll find: * All the identification information on a single page-color photographs, range map, and detailed description. No more fumbling to match photos with text! * For fast reference-a compact alphabetical index inside the front and back covers. * More than 900 high-resolution color identification photographs. * An illustrated Quick Guide to the most common backyard and feeder birds. * Convenient colored tabs keyed to each bird group. * Concise and comprehensive text, with information on habitat; plumage variation; feeding, nesting, and mating behavior; bird feeder proclivity; and-for the first time in any guide-population trends and conservation status.

    With all this, Kenya and northern Tanzania are the ultimate destination for safaris, adventure travel, and ecotourism. They also form one of the world's most spectacular regions for birdwatching, with a variety of species unmatched almost anywhere else--from the tiny Amani Sunbird to the eight-foot-tall Somali Ostrich, from the elegant flamingos of the Rift Valley lakes to carcass-eating vultures and snake-hunting eagles. This book is the definitive field guide for the thousands of birdwatchers and travelers who visit this breathtaking area every year. The guide features 124 color plates, depicting all 1,114 species in the area, including variations by subspecies, age, and sex. It contains over 800 range maps and succinct text that covers identification, voice, and distribution. Specially designed for use in the field, it is a compact version of the widely acclaimed Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, hailed on its publication in 1996 as the most comprehensive, accurate, and beautiful guide ever produced for the region. With its modest price, small trim size and sturdy, weather-resistant binding, this field guide is the one volume that every adventurous traveler to Kenya and northern Tanzania must have.

    This is the book that goes beyond the field guides: not a guide for naming the birds, but a reference for understanding them -- a complete, handy, one-volume encyclopedia on the fascinating lives of our birds.* Includes information about more than 900 birds: complete life histories for 680 species that occur regularly in North America and shorter accounts for more than 230 others that visit occasionally, with more than 600 beautiful photographs and more than 600 range maps.* Gives every important detail about the lives of birds: what they eat, where they build their nests, how many eggs they lay, what habitat they choose, when they migrate, what their current conservation status is, and much more.

    The text gives detailed descriptions of the summer, winter, and juvenile plumages of each species, as well as comparisons with similar species. The species accounts are illustrated with range maps and superb line drawings showing behavioral postures and, where useful, fine features of tail feather patterns. The 27 color plates splendidly illustrate the various plumages of each species with the emphasis on the distinctive appearance of birds of different sex, age, and geographic regions. This beautiful and authoritative book will be a must for the library of all keen birders living in and visiting North America.Species accounts include discussions of species?IdentificationMeasurementsVoiceHabitatEcologyNesting biologyDistributionTaxonomyGeographic variationsHistorical and present status

    Birds have long memories, he suggests, citing as evidence a garden thrush that came to visit him year after year, even recognizing him when he donned a particularly silly disguise. They can also use tools, feel attachment to other birds and humans, and communicate information of various kinds to one another. Not all that birds do, Skutch writes, speaks to their genius (one chapter is entitled "Apparently Stupid Behavior"), but their actions suggest a surprising depth of knowledge and ability. Birders will treasure his insights. --Gregory McNamee