The World of Birds

Product Description

The ultimate illustrated, authoritative reference to the avian world.
Written by a highly regarded ornithologist and natural history expert and sumptuously illustrated throughout with photographs and illustrations, The World of Birds is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to every aspect of bird life and a concise survey of the world’s orders and families.
Jonathan Elphick begins by defining the distinguishing features of birds before going on to describe their evolution since the age of the dinosaurs. With the aid of fact boxes and clear photographs, he then explores in greater detail each of the significant elements of bird life.
Topics include:

bird biology including anatomy, walking and swimming, plumage, calls and songs
flight techniques and styles
food and feeding
bird lifestyles and social relationships
breeding, growth and development
bird geography and habitats
the mysteries of migration.

He also considers human attitudes towards birds through the ages.
The book contains a comprehensive survey of the world’s birds (including extinct species), detailing every one of the 29 orders and each of the approximately 200 families. Reflecting the latest classification changes to the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, it explains how birds are classified and provides an outline of the system of classification.
With special photography from award-winning wildlife photographer David Tipling, this book is a unique insight into the world of birds and essential reading for all ornithologists, bird watchers and natural history enthusiasts.

Review

(review of UK edition) This is the definitive ‘everything you ever wanted to know about birds’ book. (Jeremy Mynott
British Birds Journal 2014-11-11)

The volume is organized into ten chapters, the first nine presenting reasonably in-depth discussions of a broad spectrum of avian biology topics. Everything is here: prehistoric birds, flight, migration, behavior, anatomy and physiology, distribution and biogcography. And interactions between birds and humans. These accounts are very readable, and the fresh perspective is enjoyable. The final chapter, “The Bird Families,” comprises over half of the book. Elphick, an ornithologist, a writer, and an educator with 40-plus years of experience, presents a systematic survey of world orders and families, and this chapter could actually be titled “The Birds of the World.” The taxonomic treatment, by the author’s own admission, is very conservative, which might annoy some ornithologists, but lay readers will probably not notice, and it does not detract from the overall appeal of the book. All chapters are profusely illustrated with beautiful photographs, which complement the text well, and the
result is an excellent reference book that will occupy shelves in many libraries. For those needing just one general bird reference, this might be it. Summing up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. (PK Lago
Choice 2015-03-01)

The World of Birds might just be the single avian reference that you always wanted, or didn’t know that you wanted. Almost half of its 600 or so lavishly-illustrated pages cover the most important aspects of bird biology in very accessible language. It is not, however, for the avian faint-of heart. Nineteen pages alone cover bird skeletons. Another 9 discuss feathers. The rest of the book describes each of the 195 existing bird families. Taxonomic interests come to the fore as new findings in DNA and molecular research stand poised to change what we thought about familial relationships. However, the sequence and groupings will be familiar to users of field guides. This is the perfect book for advanced high-school or college/university ornithology students, or those wishing to dive into the world of birds and are seeking more information than is found in field guides. Well-organized, it allows you to pick and choose according to your interests, an