Bald Coot and Screaming Loon: Adventures in the Curious, Mysterious and Remarkable World of Birds
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From the author of The Curious Gardener's Almanac, a fascinating miscellany that explores the mysterious world of birds. Comprising more than 1,000 entries of remarkable information about birds, bird life, and bird-watching, Bald Coot and Screaming Loon reveals the intriguing evolution and behavior patterns of these avian creatures. Woven into this wealth of knowledge are quotations, anecdotes, traditional sayings, lines of verse, practical advice for attracting and spotting birds, and words of rural wisdom, covering such topics as: •How birds came to be •Courtship and breeding •Why birds sing and call •Avian anatomy •Birds and man •How and why birds fly •The mystery of migration •Bird Brains: Instinct or intelligence? •How birds cope in a damaged world Publishers Weekly After an abortive encounter with birds during Spring break, a teenaged Edworthy gave up his dream of nature photography for writing; with a number books under his belt (The Curious Gardener's Almanac, The Optimist's/Pessimist's Handbook), he returns to his early passion for "the magical enigma" of birds with a guidebook aimed at general readers, rather than committed bird-watchers. Full of fascinating information and trivia presented in a well-illustrated, magazine-like layout, Edworthy's volume discusses topics like the probability that birds and reptiles share a common, 145-million-year-old ancestor, the crow-sized "Archaeopterix," and the myth that birds are largely monogamous (although swans, albatrosses and most birds of prey "do settle down for life"). Surprisingly, he overlooks some recent research-like a 2007 study contradicting his assertion that, in most instances, only male birds sing-but is largely reliable in his discussion of bird behavior, providing colorful anecdotes for characteristics like problem solving in crows: "in Japanese cities crows drop walnuts in front of cars ... and wait for an obliging wheel to break the shell open." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
