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How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity: A Book Review by a Non-Science Person

10,000 Birds

Doug Futuyma believes in science and in the scientific basis of evolution. How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity by Douglas J. Here are good, complex questions about why this diversity exists, how it came about, and what is its function when it comes to species and overall avian survival.

Science 222
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Flight Paths: A Book Review Written During Migration

10,000 Birds

Author Rebecca Heisman has crafted a book about bird migration, scientific process, and creativity that’s informative, engaging, and inspiring. Some are portrayed in greater life detail than others but never to the extent that the personality overshadows the science. THIS IMAGE NOT IN THE BOOK. Schulman, 2023.

Science 195
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Savanna Nightjars prove that growing old is a process of becoming increasingly disillusioned

10,000 Birds

I know for a fact that science is correct in stating that they don’t suck the milk of goats. Then again, science is definitely wrong in stating that goatsuckers have legs. Here is a further series of images from another typical day-roost of the species: roof-tops. They don’t, and I know it. Legs: The Expendables 2.

Goats 197
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Vagrancy in Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The authors aim “for the first time [to] systematically explore the taxonomic and geographic patterns of extralimital avian occurrence globally and try to synthesize what we know about the processes that underpin these occurrences, based on the latest scientific discoveries” (p. It’s not always easy reading.

Birds 262
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Birding the Ndumo area, South Africa

10,000 Birds

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. Great White Pelican is not just the name of a non-existent glam-rock band but also of a bird species. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

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Teaching Ornithology in High Schools

10,000 Birds

Manker’s thesis is that ornithology is an excellent gateway to students becoming science majors in college and, more broadly and longer-term, conservation-minded citizens. I think it could be done but not using the normal process. They would know the local streams, lakes, and marshes. Who would write it and how much would it cost?

2018 264
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Birding By Impression: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

GISS—general impression, size, shape—is intuitive, the result of an unconscious cognitive process derived from experience in the field. It is not a handbook, though it approaches species from a collective viewpoint. Experienced birders can identify birds using GISS; all birders can identify birds if they adopt the BBI approach.

Birds 171