What It's Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing--What Birds Are Doing, and Why (Sibley Guides) - Hardcover

Sibley, David Allen

 
9780307957894: What It's Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing--What Birds Are Doing, and Why (Sibley Guides)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0307957896 ISBN 13: 9780307957894
Verlag: Knopf, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyard, birds are doing—and why: "Can birds smell?"; "Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?"; "Do robins 'hear' worms?"

"The book's beauty mirrors the beauty of birds it describes so marvelously." —NPR

In What It's Like to Be a Bird, David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. This special, large-format volume is geared as much to nonbirders as it is to the out-and-out obsessed, covering more than two hundred species and including more than 330 new illustrations by the author. While its focus is on familiar backyard birds—blue jays, nuthatches, chickadees—it also examines certain species that can be fairly easily observed, such as the seashore-dwelling Atlantic puffin.

David Sibley's exacting artwork and wide-ranging expertise bring observed behaviors vividly to life. (For most species, the primary illustration is reproduced life-sized.) And while the text is aimed at adults—including fascinating new scientific research on the myriad ways birds have adapted to environmental changes—it is nontechnical, making it the perfect occasion for parents and grandparents to share their love of birds with young children, who will delight in the big, full-color illustrations of birds in action.

Unlike any other book he has written, What It's Like to Be a Bird is poised to bring a whole new audience to David Sibley's world of birds.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY is the author and illustrator of the series of successful guides to nature that bear his name, including The Sibley Guide to Birds. He has contributed to Smithsonian, Science, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Birding, BirdWatching, North American Birds, and The New York Times. He is a recipient of the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Promoting the Cause of Birding from the American Birding Association and the Linnaean Society of New York's Eisenmann Medal. He lives and birds in Massachusetts.

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Introduction

The Diversity of Birds

Birds are dinosaurs [p. 81 bottom]. Some dinosaurs grew feathers more than 160 million years ago and gave rise to true birds. The meteor impact 66 million years ago wiped out more than two-thirds of all terrestrial species on earth, including all dinosaurs and all but a few bird species [p. 81 middle]. The general consensus is that there are about eleven thousand species of birds on earth today, and about eight hundred are found regularly in North America north of Mexico. These species are incredibly diverse, and a sampling of their remarkable adaptations and abilities are presented in this book.

EVOLUTION—­NATURAL­ SELECTION­ ­AND­ SEXUAL­ SELECTION

The incredible diversity of birds is the product of millions of years of evolution. Evolution operates by selection on individual birds, similar to the way breeders of roses or dogs select the characteristics they want to enhance in future generations. In nature, mortal threats like disease, weather, predators, and others remove the “less fit” individuals from the population. At the same time, members of the opposite sex select characteristics that are appealing. All of this affects which individual birds survive and reproduce, which then influences the characteristics of the next generation. Over the course of hundreds of millions of generations, this process leads to the entire diversity of life on earth. Natural selection is mediated by survival, Darwin’s classic “survival of the fittest.” This leads to the wide range of bill shapes, wing shapes, nesting habits, and so on, as birds with the best adapted features are stronger and healthier, raise more young, and pass along their traits to more offspring. Sexual selection is driven by mate choice, as each sex selects a mate for particular features. This can lead to extravagant plumage, as we see in the male Wood Duck [p. 177, Wood Duck].

Feathers

THE ­FUNCTION­ OF ­FEATHERS

When asked “What does a feather look like?” you probably think of an oval shape, a central shaft, and many barbs on each side (like the one shown here), but feathers are extremely diverse in structure and size. Similarly, when asked “What are feathers for?” you might think of flight or insulation, but feathers have adapted to serve a myriad of different functions. Feathers keep birds warm and dry, streamline the body, provide color and ornamentation, allow birds to fly, and more. Two of the key properties of feathers are very light weight and incredible strength.

-Feathers did not evolve from scales. The precursors of feathers were bristle-like and hollow, and gradually evolved more complex structures [p. 33 right].

-The precise multibranched structure of feathers makes possible many of their remarkable properties [p. 11 bottom].

-Feathers resist breakage because fibers run continuously from the tips of the smallest barbules to the base of the feather shaft [p. 11 middle].

-Feathers have evolved many different forms, even on an individual bird, specialized for each part of the bird’s body [p. 107 bottom].

-Owls’ feathers have several adaptations to make them silent during movement [p. 65 middle].

-Bristle-like feathers around the mouth apparently function to protect the eyes [p. 97 bottom].

Feathers as waterproofing

-Feathers are water resistant because of the precise spacing of the barbs; water can neither flow through nor stick to the surface [p. 17 middle].

-Water birds have feather barbs closer together, making it harder for water to penetrate, and also more and stiffer feathers than land birds, [p. 17 bottom].

-Feathers wrap around the underside of a swimming bird to create a waterproof shell [p. 11 middle].

-Cormorants’ body feathers have waterproof centers but get wet on the margins [p. 27 middle].

-Owls’ feathers are less water repellent than other birds’, which may be why so many owls seek sheltered roost sites [p. 180, Eastern Screech-Owl].

Feathers as insulation

-Down from ducks and geese is still the most efficient insulation known, natural or synthetic [p. 9 middle].

-Feathers insulate birds from heat as well as cold [p. 107 middle].

Feathers for flight

-The large feathers of the wings and tail form a broad flat surface that makes flight possible [p. 69 top].

-Details of shape and structure ensure that wing feathers have the right combination of strength and flexibility [p. 103 bottom].

Feathers as ornamentation

-Feathers have evolved a myriad of colors and patterns (see col- oration, below), and feathers also create three-dimensional shapes.

-The “ears” or “horns” of some owls are tufts of feathers, for display and for camouflage [p. 63 top].
The crest of a jay or a cardinal is simply feathers, and can be raised or lowered at will [p. 147 top].

-Highly modified feather tips in waxwings have a hard, smooth texture, just for decoration [p. 185, Cedar Waxwing].
 
HOW­ MANY ­FEATHERS ­DOES­ A ­BIRD ­HAVE?

The number of feathers depends partly on the size of the bird, and also on how much it needs waterproofing.

-Small songbirds generally have about two thousand feathers, fewer in summer and more in winter. Larger birds like crows mostly have larger feathers, not more [p. 161 middle].

-Water birds have more feathers than land birds, especially on the parts of the body that are frequently in contact with water [p. 17 bottom].

-A swan’s long neck is covered with a dense coat of feathers, with more than twenty thousand feathers on the neck alone [p. 7 middle].

FEATHER ­MAINTENANCE

Feathers are critical for a bird’s survival, so birds spend a lot of time on feather care. Preening is the most obvious and frequent feather-care activity, and involves using the bill (for body feathers) and claws (for head feathers). Preening effectively combs the feathers into place, cleans out any dirt or debris that might be stuck there, removes parasites like feather lice, and applies protective oil to the feathers. Many other activities are also related to feather care.

-Birds spend at least 10 percent of each day preening their feathers, and there is a routine to it that is similar in all species. Preening is so important that some details of bill shape have evolved specifically for that activity [p. 145 middle].

-A bird can’t preen its own head with its bill, so it must use its feet; some species get around this by preening each other [p. 183, Common Raven].

-Birds bathe frequently, most likely because water helps to rejuvenate their feathers [p. 137 right].

-Dust bathing is common in some species, though the reason is unclear [p. 161 bottom].

-Sunning and anting are two behaviors that are often confused by observers, and neither is well understood; sunning likely has to do with feather maintenance, anting with food [p. 109 bottom].

-Vultures often spread their wings in the sun; here, too, the reason is unclear [p. 59 top].

-The wing-spreading behavior of cormorants is still not fully explained, but probably helps dry the feathers after swimming [p. 27 top].

GROWING NEW FEATHERS

Feathers wear out and have to be replaced periodically— generally once a year— and this process is called molt. Since feathers are so critical to survival, most birds have evolved a very orderly process to molt gradually without hindering their ability to fly or to keep warm and dry.

-Feathers grow from follicles in the skin, rolled up in a cylinder; the tip emerges first [p. 15 bottom].

-The same feather...

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Verlag
Knopf
Erscheinungsdatum
2020
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0307957896
ISBN 13 
9780307957894
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Knopf
https://knopfdoubleday.com

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