The World of Birds

This encyclopedic, coffee-table book is a complete resource for anyone interested in birds. It examines birds from multiple angles, including the evolution of birds, their anatomy, physiology, flight, food, feeding, social life, habitat and migration. There's an account of each of the 32 orders and 195 families of birds worldwide and over a thousand stunning, up-close images by wildlife photographer David Tipling, whose compelling images capture the unique coloring and expressive faces of the bird species discussed. We see the Blue Grouse performing a courtship display, the Northern Hawk Owl flying inches above the snow in Finland and the Osprey in flight over Scotland, a trout in its talons. It's the photographs that will keep readers turning pages; the prose is dense makes the book more useful as a reference book for researching individual birds than as a bedside reading companion. Elphick devotes one chapter to bird and human interaction, describing the effects on birds of habitat destruction, hunting and trapping and the introduction of non-native animals and plants. The photographs accompanying this chapter are sobering, a reminder of the horrific imprint man often leaves on his natural environment. (Sept.)