Everywhere we go there are birds, and they all have mysteries to be unravelled. These mysteries include the way they look, from bizarre to apparently mundane, why they live where they live, and the things they do, many of which are far too incredible ever to be imagined as fiction. Birds in Their Habitats is a collection of stories and experiences, which introduce fascinating aspects of birdlife, ecology and behaviour. Informed by a wealth of historical and contemporary research, Ian Fraser takes the reader on a journey through four continents: from places as unfamiliar as the Chonos Archipelago of southern Chile and the arid Sahel woodlands of northern Cameroon to those as familiar as a suburban backyard. This is a book of discovery of birds and the places they live. And with humour and personal insight, it is a book about the sometimes strange world of the people who spend a life absorbed in birds.

Synthesises important concepts, patterns and issues relating to avian habitat selection, drawing on examples from Europe, North America and Australia.

How does a bird experience a city? A backyard? A park? As the world has become more urban, noisier from increased traffic, and brighter from streetlights and office buildings, it has also become more dangerous for countless species of birds. Warblers become disoriented by nighttime lights and collide with buildings. Ground-feeding sparrows fall prey to feral cats. Hawks and other birds-of-prey are sickened by rat poison. These name just a few of the myriad hazards. How do our cities need to change in order to reduce the threats, often created unintentionally, that have resulted in nearly three billion birds lost in North America alone since the 1970s? In The Bird-Friendly City, Timothy Beatley, a longtime advocate for intertwining the built and natural environments, takes readers on a global tour of cities that are reinventing the status quo with birds in mind. Efforts span a fascinating breadth of approaches: public education, urban planning and design, habitat restoration, architecture, art, civil disobedience, and more. Beatley shares empowering examples, including: advocates for “catios,” enclosed outdoor spaces that allow cats to enjoy backyards without being able to catch birds; a public relations campaign for vultures; and innovations in building design that balance aesthetics with preventing bird strikes. Through these changes and the others Beatley describes, it is possible to make our urban environments more welcoming to many bird species. Readers will come away motivated to implement and advocate for bird-friendly changes, with inspiring examples to draw from. Whether birds are migrating and need a temporary shelter or are taking up permanent residence in a backyard, when the environment is safer for birds, humans are happier as well.

The present book is divided into several parts. An introductory chapter serves to make the reader aware of the diversity of the subject of habitat selection in birds. Many if the various aspects of habitat selection introduced in the first chapter are developed in subsequent chapters, and thus it serves to some extent as an overview of the subject and as a "lead-in" to subsequent work.

The greatest threats to Europe's birds and biodiversity come from loss and degradation of habitat. This book brings together more than 190 bird and habitat conservation experts from all over Europe, to examine the threats to Europe's eight major habitat types, and propose policies and actions to protect and restore them. Although the emphasis is on birds, particularly the 40 percent of European species with an unfavourable conservation status, many recommendations would help conserve all elements of biodiversity in the wider European environment. "An important contribution to the conservation of biodiversity in Europe" - Peter L Nielsen, European Commission. "An extremely valuable reference for bird conservationists in any continent" - The Wilson Bulletin.

The book describes all the main habitat types, the structure and composition of bird communities, and reviews bird sites and their distribution throughout Britain. Rob Fuller's book would not have been possible but for the nationwide cooperative endeavour by amateur and professional ornithologists, naturalists and conservationists which led to the British Trust for Ornithology's Register of Ornithological Sites, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy Council. Hitherto, few books have dealt primarily with bird habitats but the subject is of urgent importance now that exploitation of the environment has left few corners of Britain untouched or unthreatened. Even so, the book is much more than timely, it also extends the reader's interest to an area of bird study that has, perhaps, been too little considered. The text is supported by more than 100 diagrams and maps, and over 50 photographs; in addition there are 53 superbly evocative drawings by Donald Watson. For the birdwatcher and all involved with conservation, this is stimulating reading and an essential reference.

A practical, comprehensive, and thoroughly illustrated guide to attracting birds to any property.