Showing results for "Engineering the Environment" in Birdwatching

When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the “Big Year”—the legendary record for birdwatching—he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder. Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts—in just a single year.

Every spring, billions of birds sweep north, driven by ancient instincts to return to their breeding grounds. This vast parade often goes unnoticed, except in a few places where these small travelers concentrate in large numbers. One such place is along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio. There, the peak of spring migration is so spectacular that it attracts bird watchers from around the globe, culminating in one of the world’s biggest birding festivals. Now climate change threatens to disrupt patterns of migration and the delicate balance between birds, seasons, and habitats.

Did you know that woodpeckers are capable of learning simple codes? Hooded crows can form connections with humans? A jay's call affects the behaviour of surrounding squirrels? All these fascinating bird activities and more are revealed in The Hidden Life of Garden Birds. Unusual feeding behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg. From territorial conflict and strange relationships with man, to breeding and nesting oddities, this book exposes all the drama behind garden birds' everyday survival - making it the perfect gift for birdwatchers.