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The Barn Swallow is a familiar and popular bird throughout theworld. It is one of the most widely distributed bird species, breedingin North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa and wintering in SouthAmerica, southern Africa, southern Asia and even northern Australia.Its habit of nesting close to human habitation has made this elegantbird a part of farmyard and village life and a welcome herald ofspring. This book examines all aspects of the life of this endearing bird, with chapters on its flyingskills and feeding habits, mate choice, breeding strategies, nestsites, eggs and incubation, nestling rearing, productivity andsurvival, migratory behaviour and population dynamics. It also considers changes in populations and behaviour in relation to intensive agriculture and climate change. The Barn Swallow is both engaging and authoritative;birdwatchers will enjoy amazing insights into the life of the species,such as the importance of tail feathers when finding a mate, or thesinister way that some birds kill of the chicks of rivals. Academicscholars will appreciate the book's broad overview of current researchon this species.
The Barn Swallow is a familiar and popular bird throughout the world. It is one of the most widely distributed bird species, breeding in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa and wintering in South America, southern Africa, southern Asia and even northern Australia. Its habit of nesting close to human habitation has made this elegant bird a part of farmyard and village life and a welcome herald of spring. This book examines all aspects of the life of this endearing bird, with chapters on its flying skills and feeding habits, mate choice, breeding strategies, nest sites, eggs and incubation, nestling rearing, productivity and survival, migratory behaviour and population dynamics. It also considers changes in populations and behaviour in relation to intensive agriculture and climate change. The Barn Swallow is both engaging and authoritative; birdwatchers will enjoy amazing insights into the life of the species, such as the importance of tail feathers when finding a mate, or the sinister way that some birds kill of the chicks of rivals. Academic scholars will appreciate the book's broad overview of current research on this species.
On a fall day in a park, a barn swallow spreads its wings and takes off into the air to start a very long journey. The little bird travels thousands of miles during its migration south for the winter. After reaching its warm winter home, the barn swallow finds plenty of food as it zigzags through the air catching insects. By early spring, it’s time to return north. In this dramatic and colorful book, beginning readers will learn all about where barn swallows go in the winter and the amazing ways they survive—including traveling in large groups, some as large as one million birds. Each 24-page book features controlled text with age-appropriate vocabulary and simple sentence construction. The lively text, colorful design, and exquisite photos are sure to delight and engage emergent readers.
Taking a look at the unexplored life of our feathered and musical friends, Henry the Barn Swallow explores the way our world appears to a little bird. Growing and learning everything he can from his home in the tree, Henry is exposed to flowers of every color, the people who plant the flowers, and becomes acquainted with the ins and outs of the life of people. In an imaginative and lovely way, Henry the Barn Swallow is a tale that covers a great amount of ground. From his time in his egg, to his first winter migration, this story shares the life of one sweet little bird, his loving family, and their kindly Human neighbors.
An important empirical test of the theoretical predictions of sexual selection theory, this book presents a long-term field study of the monagamous barn swallow. By using information on behaviour, ecology, morphology, genetics, and evolution, the book reviews this theory and its twocomponents: male-male competition and female choice.The selective advantages of a long tail are investigated for this common bird, demonstrating such effects as mating behaviour, copulation behaviour, migration strategies, and host-parasite interactions.A rich informative text which clearly elucidates the mechanisms and consequences of sexual selection.
From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer and birdwatcher, it is the expedition of a lifetime. Along the way he discovers old empires and modern tribes, a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, and describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog. By trains, motorbikes, canoes, one camel and three ships, Clare follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May.
The Barn Swallow is a familiar and popular bird throughout the world. It is one of the most widely distributed bird species, breeding in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa and wintering in South America, southern Africa, southern Asia and even northern Australia. Its habit of nesting close to human habitation has made this elegant bird a part of farmyard and village life and a welcome herald of spring. This book examines all aspects of the life of this endearing bird, with chapters on its flying skills and feeding habits, mate choice, breeding strategies, nest sites, eggs and incubation, nestling rearing, productivity and survival, migratory behaviour and population dynamics. It also considers changes in populations and behaviour in relation to intensive agriculture and climate change. The Barn Swallow is both engaging and authoritative; birdwatchers will enjoy amazing insights into the life of the species, such as the importance of tail feathers when finding a mate, or the sinister way that some birds kill of the chicks of rivals. Academic scholars will appreciate the book's broad overview of current research on this species.
From the bestselling author of The Robin, The Wren and The Twelve Birds of Christmas. With around 700,000 breeding pairs, the swallow is one of the most familiar birds in Britain. Though we consider the swallow to be 'our' bird, we also share this beloved creature with millions of others across the globe. Whilst we see it on a daily basis for half the year, the swallow then flies south to Africa, living on only in our memory in the long, dark winter. In The Swallow Stephen Moss documents a year of observing the swallow close to home and in the field to shed light on the secret life of this extraordinary bird. We trace the swallow's life cycle and journey, including the epic 12,000-mile round...
An RSPB audio and book guide to the birdsong of Britain's best known bird species. Birdsong is the natural soundtrack to our lives and can evoke a powerful sense of time, place and season. Often profoundly beautiful, it is also the most effective way to discover many birds, and birds' songs and calls reveal much about their lives and behaviour. But identifying which bird is making which sound can seem challenging. With this groundbreaking and easy-to-use RSPB guide, Adrian Thomas helps you learn and identify bird sounds step by step and at your own pace. Whether you are an experienced birdwatcher or just enjoy hearing the birds in your garden, this new guide will open your ears like never before to the amazing songs and calls around you. Together the book and CD combine to create an RSPB-endorsed sound guide to more than 100 songs and calls of 65 garden, woodland and farmland birds, and a reference section describes in detail the sounds of a further 185 birds of Britain and north-west Europe. The 68-minute narrated recording can also be downloaded to listen to on the go, and is accompanied by beautiful colour photographs, annotated sonograms and 'test yourself' sections.