In these delightful meditations, biologist and bird lover
Richard Cannings weaves stories of his personal encounters with birds into fascinating descriptions of their behavior, anatomy, and evolution. He muses over the meadowlarks’ ability to hide their nests so completely that he has seen only two in a lifetime spent searching for them; the trumpeter swan, as picky as a two-year old, devouring potatoes and carrots but turning up its beak at Brussels sprouts; the northern gannet, with its snowy plumage, black wingtips, and startling blue eyes; the little saw-whet owl, which dabbles in bigamy and even trigamy; and more than two dozen other birds. Covering the entire continent, from the cacophony of a seabird colony on the shores of the Atlantic to a symphony of snow geese on the autumn plains to songbird courtship in the alpine tundra of the Rockies,
An Enchantment of Birds informs and entertains, in one fell swoop.
Зміст
Western Meadowlark
Western Kingbird
Evening Grosbeak
Bohemian Waxwing
California Quail
Black-capped Chickadee
Pygmy Nuthatch
White-headed Woodpecker
Calliope Hummingbird
Western Bluebird
Common Poorwill
Flammulated Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Northern Flicker
Clark’s Nutcracker
American Crow
Common Raven
Golden Eagle
White-tailed Ptarmigan
Horned Lark
Northern Gannet
Tufted Puffin
Black-footed Albatross
Bald Eagle
American Dipper
American Coot
Turkey Vulture
Gray Flycatcher
Western Grebe
Про автора
Richard Cannings works as a consulting biologist in Naramata, British Columbia, assessing endangered species and organizing broad-scale bird population surveys, among many other projects. He teaches field ecology at the University of British Columbia and was curator of the Cowan Vertebrate Museum at the university for fifteen years. He is the author of
The Rockies: A Natural History and, with Sydney Cannings, of
British Columbia: A Natural History and
The B.C. Roadside Naturalist.