The various Red Data Books prepared by the IUCN and ICBP have set the standards for recognizing birds close to or at risk of extinction worldwide. This book, by focusing on vulnerable species living in or visiting Britain, sets out to define the British situation and to clearly establish both the importance of British populations and our own responsibilities for contributing to bird conservation. Compiled by an editorial team drawn from the Nature Conservancy Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, it identifies 117 species that demand our care and attention. It...

Surprisingly, for one of Europe's commoner birds of prey, relatively little is known about some aspects of the Kestrel's behaviour and associations. Dr Village's book leaves us far better informed and is an inviting combination of readability and scholarship that reflects his dedication and enthusiasm for Falco tinnunculus. The author studied the Kestrel for several years in Scottish hill country and sheepwalk, then in two agricultural areas of eastern England, but his book also includes much valuable observation and data from Europe and elsewhere. Its twenty-one chapters cover all...

This thought-provoking text offers many insights not generally perceived by ornithologist or botanist and is illustrated in masterly fashion by John Busby's lively drawings. The book's subtitle - A study of an ecological interaction - properly reflects the author's theme but may tend to hide the fact that the relationships between birds and berries can be much more than the simple, mutually advantageous systems ('eat my fruits, spread my seeds' ) they may seem at first to be. Therein lies the core of the book - the less obvious intricacies and implications of plant/bird associations,...

The oceanographic and coastal features of the British Isles provide a wealth of ideal habitats for breeding seabirds and it is no surprise that the British and Irish seabird populations are of international importance, both in sheer numbers and in species diversity. Indeed, for some species British waters are host to the greater part of the world's population. This book presents the most up-to-date information available on these seabird populations, their numbers and distribution, and their changing fortunes in recent years. The Operation Seafarer survey, carried out in 1969-70, provided a...

This second edition of Peter Grant's guide has been extensively revised and has been reset throughout. Importantly, a further eight species of gulls occurring on the west coasts of Canada and the USA have been added. The book now covers 31 species and has been increased in length from 280 to 352 pages. More than 280 new photographs have been added or substituted, bringing the total to 544, including 79 photographs for the eight North American additional species. The great increase in interest in gull identification since the publication of the first edition (and the author's series on that...

The 83 species featured in this book, in date sequence of discovery, had not been recorded in Britain or Ireland before 1946. The original accounts of the sightings published in issues of British Birds* between 1947 and 1982 are now reprinted and supplemented with comment by Dr Sharrock on subsequent occurrences and current status. In addition, Peter Grant provides identification notes drawing attention to points not covered in the original accounts. There is also a world distribution map for each species and a line illustration to head each of the accounts. At the end of the book a section...

This year, 1983, the British Trust for Ornithology celebrates its first 50 years and this volume records much of the history of birdwatching and ornithology since the early 1930s. The book is not a history of the BTO, but many of the Trust's achievements helped fashion the development and direction of ornithology over the decades, and major aspects of the Trust's work rightly have detailed treatment. The book ranges widely, it looks at the changing bird as well as the changing bird watcher and records the work of related conservation bodies, it considers the future and the past and includes...

The author defines more than 1100 words and terms in this illustrated dictionary for the birdwatcher. Its attraction for the relative novice is obvious but it is equally directed to experienced birdwatchers who will find succinct definitions of terms that are new to them and of others that they have understood none too well. Whatever the user's ornithological expertise the book will expand or confirm his or her knowledge and offer at the same time an absorbing and entertaining browse, as a good dictionary should. Among the appendices is a full list of species on the British and Irish List...

Dr J. T. R. Sharrock is uniquely placed to write about the rare birds of Britain and Ireland. He is a member of all three bodies which adjudicate on such records - honorary secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union's Records Committee and a member of both the British Birds Rarities Committee and the Irish Records Panel. He is already the author of a companion book which deals with a selection of the commoner rarities, Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain and Ireland (see back of this jacket for details). In this new, much fuller book the enormous task of collation of over 8000 records and...

Covering 282 rare species and sub-species (plus records for a further 18 Category D species) found in Britain and Ireland, around 20,000 individual records of rare birds are listed in diary style, with each individual bird appearing on the date on which it was originally found, along with all the other rare birds found on that date between 1958 and 1994. Rare Birds Day by Day follows three earlier Poyser titles looking at scarce and rare birds recorded in Britain and Ireland, Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock, 1974), Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock &...