Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World - Hardcover

Hancock, James A.; Kushan, James A.

9780123227300: Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0123227305 ISBN 13: 9780123227300

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1992

Some of the world's largest and most spectacular birds are to be found among this group of wading birds. Tragically, they also include many of the world's most endangered species, as changes in land use erode their wetland habitats. Some, like the White stork, have lived alongside humans for hundreds of years and are well known from numerous scientific studies. Others, like the Storm's Stork and the Ibises of West Africa, South-East Asia and South America live so secluded a life in the remote corners of the globe that they will probably be extinct before even the most basic details of their biology are known.
In this definitive monograph, three authors and two artists have combined their skills to capture what is known of these birds, and to picture them in beautiful paintings and photographs. The text opens with general chapters on taxonomy and feeding, and breeding behavior, following which, each species is dealt with in detail. Between them, the authors have personal experience of most of the species in five continents, and pay particular attention to documenting the current status of the threatened and rare species.

Key Features
* The most complete compilation available on this group of birds
* Includes stunning color plates
* Features magnificent portraits from renowned ornithological artists Alan Harris and David Quinn

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From the Back Cover:

By far the most authoritative and comprehensive work ever published on the birds of Africa. The editors and artists have worked closely with the nine authors of this volume - all internationally acknowledged experts on their bird families - to produce encyclopaedic accounts of each species. Volume IV covers the first 312 of the 1200 or so passerine species which offur in continental Africa and its outlying islands. As in the first three volumes, each breeding species receives full coverage with sections on range and status, description, voice, general habits, food and breeding biology. Non-breeding visitors to the continent are treated more briefly with a text concentrating on the birds' status and biology while in Africa. Range maps are shown for each bird and superspecies maps are given where appropriate.
Once again Martin Woodcock has done full justice to the brilliant plumages of African birds. The large plates show the birds to their best advantage or adopt a more formal, field guide style to emphasise the identification points of the more difficult groups. Ian Willis' line drawings elaborate on displays and other patterns of behaviour described in the text. The beauty and scholarship of this now standard reference on African birds must ensure its place on every ornithologist's book shelf.

About the Author:

James Hancock was elected as a Corresponding Fellow of The American Ornithologist Union in 1995. The American Waterbirds Society honored him with their prestigious Kai Curry Lindahl award for Conservation.He is a Past President of the British Trust for Ornithology and served on the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He received an OBE for Service to Ornithology in H.M. the Queen's 1991 New Year's Honors List.He has authored and co-authored many books including his latest Herons and Egrets of the World in 1999.He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Southampton.

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