Flight of the Budgerigar
Flight of the Budgerigar

Author: Penny Olsen

Publisher:

Published: 2021-10

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780642279606

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The Budgerigar is arguably Australia's best-known bird. At the same time, it is so ubiquitous that not everyone knows that it is Australian. Nor do many realise that the multicoloured bird that comes to mind--not to mention today's super-sized, extravagantly coiffed show budgie--is as different from the free-living original as a chihuahua from a wolf. Far from the cosy domestic lives our pet budgies live today, the native budgerigar has lived millennia of boom-bust cycles in the arid inland of Australia. Life was often short; if they were not fodder for predators, they starved or had to struggle their way to districts closer to the coast. For the Warlpiri and their Arrernte neighbours around Alice Springs, the Budgerigar (in its ancestral form) was a totem animal, featuring in art, ceremonies, songlines and legends. Since 1840, when ornithologist John Gould took living specimens to London, this little parrot has been on a remarkable journey. The Budgerigar was Australia's first mass export; its story includes British queens and nobles, Japanese princes and Hollywood stars. It has won the hearts of British spies and world leaders, including Churchill, Stalin and Kennedy. Taking the reader from the Dreamtime to the colonial live bird trade, the competitive culture of the showroom and today's thriving wild flocks, Flight of the Budgerigar is the authoritative history of the Budgerigar, written by respected ornithologist Dr Penny Olsen, and lavishly illustrated in full colour.

Budgerigar
Budgerigar

Author: Sarah Harris

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Published: 2020-03-31

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1760873810

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Budgies, budgies, budgies. Beautiful and cheeky, delightful and enchanting, wild or tamed budgerigars are Australia's gift to the bird world. They sing and dance, and yawn as contagiously as humans. They are masters of mimicry. They grasp simple grammar, can count to six and have memories that belie their size. They've been coveted by royals and been companions to the great and famous as well as grannies in suburban kitchens around the world. They've been painted by masters, rendered in the finest porcelain and graced fashionable hats and earrings of the highest order. Their image has been used to sell whisky, stamps and laundry detergent and everything in between. Surprising, charming and occasionally alarming, Budgerigar is the book that at last opens the cage door on the incredible story of the little bird that grew.

Birds of Maine
Birds of Maine

Author: Peter D. Vickery

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 0691193193

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A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated overview to the birds of Maine The first comprehensive overview of Maine’s incredibly rich birdlife in more than seven decades, Birds of Maine is a detailed account of all 464 species recorded in the Pine Tree State. It is also a thoroughly researched, accessible portrait of a region undergoing rapid changes, with southern birds pushing north, northern birds expanding south, and once-absent natives like Atlantic Puffins brought back by innovative conservation techniques pioneered in Maine. Written by the late Peter Vickery in cooperation with a team of leading ornithologists, this guide offers a detailed look at the state’s dynamic avifauna—from the Wild Turkey to the Arctic Tern—with information on migration patterns and timing, current status and changes in bird abundance and distribution, and how Maine's geography and shifting climate mold its birdlife. It delves into the conservation status for Maine's birds, as well as the state's unusually textured ornithological history, involving such famous names as John James Audubon and Theodore Roosevelt, and home-grown experts like Cordelia Stanwood and Ralph Palmer. Sidebars explore diverse topics, including the Old Sow whirlpool that draws multitudes of seabirds and the famed Monhegan Island, a mecca for migrant birds. Gorgeously illustrated with watercolors by Lars Jonsson and scores of line drawings by Barry Van Dusen, Birds of Maine is a remarkable guide that birders will rely on for decades to come. Copublished with the Nuttall Ornithological Club

Australian Predators of the Sky
Australian Predators of the Sky

Author: Penny Olsen

Publisher: National Library of Australia

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0642278563

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Australian predators of the sky are some of the most admired and the most despised of the bird world. Raptors are admired for their strength and independence, but despised for their depredations on livestock and favourite garden birds, while the owls are at once respected for their wisdom and watchfulness and feared for their mournful cries and association with darkness and ill-omen. The book begins with fascinating descriptions by award-winning natural history author Penny Olsen on the discovery and illustration of birds of prey in Australia, and their characteristics and ecology, followed by full-colour illustrations of each species by a variety of artists, accompanied by intriguing notes about the birds. Australian Predators of the Sky comprises over 200 striking paintings, lithographs and engravings of all 34 Australian species—25 diurnal birds of prey such as eagles, hawks and falcons, and nine owls such as hawk-owls and barn-owls.

The Unfeathered Bird
The Unfeathered Bird

Author: Katrina van Grouw

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0691151342

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There is more to a bird than simply feathers. And just because birds evolved from a single flying ancestor doesn't mean they are structurally the same. With 385 stunning drawings depicting 200 species, The Unfeathered bird is a richly illustrated book on bird anatomy that offers refreshingly original insights into what goes on beneath the feathered surface.

Parakeet Care
Parakeet Care

Author: Nikki Moustaki

Publisher: TFH Publications

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9780793810192

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Everything you need to know about caring for parakeets as pets

A Flutter of Butterflies
A Flutter of Butterflies

Author: Michael F. Braby

Publisher: National Library Australia

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 0642277257

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A Flutter of Butterflies is a stunning showcase of butterfly and moth illustrations held by the National Library of Australia. The works span the years from the 1770s, through the early colonial period to the turn of the twenty-first century.As well as containing a plethora of gorgeous colour images, the publication features a fascinating introductory essay about the history of Australian Lepidoptera illustration. In addition to the essay, the book offers biographical essays about the artists represented, among whom are some of Australias most-loved artists, including Louisa Anne Meredith, Marian Ellis Rowan and Charles McCubbin.

The Quintessential Bird
The Quintessential Bird

Author: Viola Temple Watts

Publisher: National Library Australia

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 0642277311

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Betty Temple Watts (1901-1992) developed an interest in birds in her early married life while living in Iran and Papua New Guinea. Although she had studied art formally as a nineteen year old, it was not until she was 48, and settled in Melbourne, that she decided to immerse herself in her bird art.Betty spent much of her time practising drawing, but was constantly critical of the results. In spite of her harsh selfjudgement, others had a high opinion of her skill and, in 1952, she received her first commission, going on to provide bird illustrations for numerous publications until she was in her late eighties. The Quintessential Bird allows readers a glimpse into Betty's joyous world of birds. This is followed by the plates, reproduced in full along with 60 close-ups of individual birds.

Bird Migration
Bird Migration

Author: Eberhard Gwinner

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 3642745423

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E. GWINNER! The phenomenon of bird migration with its large scale dimensions has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Worldwide billions of birds leave their breeding grounds every autumn to migrate to areas with seasonally more favor able conditions. Many of these migrants travel only over a few hundred kilo meters but others cover distances equivalent to the circumference of the earth. Among these long-distance migrants are several billion birds that invade Africa every autumn from their West and Central Palaearctic breeding areas. In the Americas and in Asia the scope of bird migration is of a similar magnitude. Just as impressive as the numbers of birds are their achievements. They have to cope with the enormous energetic costs of long-distance flying. particularly while crossing oceans and deserts that do not allow replenishment of depleted fat reserves. They have to appropriately time the onset and end of migrations. both on a daily and annual basis. And finally. they have to orient their migratory movements in space to reach their species- or population-specific wintering and breeding grounds, irrespective of the variable climatic conditions along their migratory routes.