Books About Bowerbirds

Books About Birds

A guide to books about birds and birdwatching

Home | Index | Search | Links | Contact


Sharpe's Birds Of Paradise R. Bowdler-Sharpe Illustrations: W. Hart, J. Gould, J.G. Keulemans Foreword: David Attenborough Folio Society 2011 A limited edition of Sharpe's Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds which was originally published in two volumes in 1891 and 1898. This edition which is housed in a slipcase includes high quality reproductions of the 79 plates taken froma first edition at the John Rylands Library in Manchester.

Bowerbirds: Nature Art History Clifford Frith and Dawn Frith Frith & Frith 2008 "This is the authoritative, comprehensive and definitive popular work on bowerbirds. Bowerbirds are the most remarkable and fascinating of living birds because of their amazingly human-like, complex, and artistic behaviour."	Buy from amazon.co.uk

Bowerbirds Peter Rowland Australian Natural History Series CSIRO 2008 "The bowerbirds are confined to Australia and New Guinea and, due to the difficulty in accessing certain areas of their distribution, the study of their habits has been challenging. The 20 species are also almost equally divided between the two regions with eight species endemic to Australia, 10 to New Guinea and two species occurring in both regions. This book aims to condense the published knowledge acquired by ornithologists that have studied the bowerbirds since their discovery, and deliver it in a format suitable for natural history enthusiasts at any level. While the emphasis of the book is on Australia's members of the family, with detailed accounts on each of the 10 species, the New Guinea representatives are discussed in general chapters and are included in a supplemental section that covers key areas such as breeding, identification and distribution. "Bowerbirds" has over 80 illustrations, including colour pictures of each Australian species, their bowers and distributional maps, in addition to over 140 pages of comprehensive written material."	Buy from amazon.co.uk

The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae Clifford Frith and Dawn Frith Colour plates: Eustace Barnes Oxford University Press 2004 532 pages, 8 colour plates, 77 b/w halftones, and 26 maps "The first section of this volume comprises 7 general chapters on the biology, feeding ecology, breeding behaviour, evolutionary relationships, and conservation of the birds in the family. The second section provides descriptions of each species individually, including appearance, weights, and measurements; field characters; voice; habitat and food; breeding behaviour; life cycle; and range and status (with distribution map). This provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date species-level information available. The text is supported by 6 specially commissioned colour plates by Eustace Barnes, showing adults of all species and many juveniles, immatures and subspecies, 2 plates of colour photographs and many line drawings illustrating special features and behaviour."	Buy from amazon.co.uk

Finches, Bowerbirds and Other Passerines Of Australia Editor: Ronald Strahan Birds Of Australia series The National Photographic index of Australian Wildlife Angus & Robertson 1996 "This volume includes: buntings; finches; sparrows; weavers; grass-finches; starlings and mynas; orioles and figbirds; drongos; bowerbirds; birds of paradise; magpie-larks; mud-nest builders; woodswallows; magpies, currawongs and butcherbirds; and crows and ravens. Full descriptions are given of each species, as well as breeding habits, habitat, food, voice, distribution and current status. Each entry is accompanied by colour photographs and distribution maps."	Buy from amazon.co.uk

Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds Michael Everett Illustrations: John Gould, W. Hart, J.G. Keulemans, Peter Hayman, and others Burlington Books 1987	Buy from amazon.co.uk

In Quest Of Bowerbirds Norman Chaffer Rigby 1984

The Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds William T. Cooper and Joseph M. Forshaw Collins 1977 304 pages with 60 full page colour plates by Cooper.	Buy from amazon.co.uk

Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds E. Thomas Gillard Littlehampton Books 1969	Buy from amazon.co.uk

A Comparative Analysis Of Courtship Movements In Closely Allied Bowerbirds Of The Genus Chlamydera E. Thomas Gilliard and John Warham American Museum Novitates, No. 1936 American Museum of Natural History 1959 Opening lines: "Bowerbirds occur in Australia and New Guinea. Although they are closely related to birds of paradise, their ornamental plumage is largely limited to colorful crests, and, unexpectedly, the crests are lack- ing in certain species belonging to groups of closely allied species in which erectile, fiery orange or lilac-pink crests are characteristic."

The Courtship Behavior Of Sanford's Bowerbird (Archboldia sanfordi) E. Thomas Gilliard American Museum Novitates, No. 1935 American Museum of Natural History 1959 Opening lines: "The present paper is preliminary to a general report on the Ptilo- norhynchidae (Gilliard, MS) in which the systematics of the bowerbird family will be discussed. Presented herein are detailed field observations of Archboldia sanfordi made by the writer in 1956 (July 13 to 17) at 8500 feet on the south watershed of Mt. Hagen, New Guinea, together with remarks on the biological significance of a hitherto unknown pattern of courtship in birds."

Observations On The Golden Bower-bird A.H. Chisholm and Norman Chaffer Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 1956 Opening lines: "Various odd circumstances are associated with the discovery and naming of Prionodura newtoniana, the beautiful Golden Bower-bird of north-eastern Queensland, and it would appear to be desirable to examine those occurrences and to adjust certain errors. More important, the remarkable habits of the species call for attention, partly in the light of writings in various publications of other years (some of which are now obscure), but mainly on the basis of recent observations. Especially noteworthy, perhaps, is the fact that examples of the handsome male birds have lately been photographed, in both colour and black-and-white, while tending their bowers in the semi-darkness of mountain jungle^. Little fresh knowledge, however, has been gained in regard to the plain-coloured female of the species; nor has anything more been learned about the nest and eggs, which in fact have not been reported for almost fifty years."

Bower-birds, Their Displays And Breeding Cycles: A Preliminary Statement A.J. Marshall Clarendon Press 1954	Buy from amazon.co.uk

Geographic Variation And Plumages In Australian Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchidae) Ernst Mayr and Kate Jennings American Museum Novitates, No. 1602 American Museum of Natural History 1952 Opening lines: "In view of the great recent interest in the biology of bower- birds, it is surprising how little is known about the taxonomy of the Australian species. The available accounts in the standard works are very confusing, since no difference is made in most of them between synonyms and valid subspecies. Furthermore, a study of individual variation, of the sequence of plumages, and of measurements is badly needed, as information on these matters is woefully inadequate in the existing literature. In fact, we know much more about the New Guinea species than about the most familiar Australian birds".

Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds Tom Iredale Georgian House 1950	Buy from amazon.co.uk

A New Bower Bird (Archboldia) From Mount Hagen, New Guinea Ernsy Mayr and E. Thomas Gilliard American Museum Novitates, No. 1473 American Museum of Natural History 1950 Opening lines: "In 1940 Dr. A. L. Rand (Amer. Mus. Novitates, no. 1072, pp. 9-10) described a remarkable new species of bower bird from the Snow Mountains of Dutch New Guinea. So distinct was the species that Rand was obliged to erect a new genus for it. The only known eight specimens had been collected by the 1938-1939 Richard Archbold Expedition. The record of one additional specimen from the Wisselmeer was published subsequently (Rand, 1942, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 79, p. 498)."

A New Bower-Bird Of The Genus Xanthomelus James P. Chapin American Museum Novitates, No. 367 American Museum of Natural History 1929 Opening lines: "Among the birds recently collected in New Guinea by MIr. R. H. Beck for The American Museum of Natural History there are three examples of a Xanthornelus which, though evidently a close ally of X. auaeus and X. ardens, differs from them conspicuously in color, especially that of the underparts, and the shortness of the crown-feathers. It is undoubtedly a distinct species, of which I could find no published description; so to make sure that it has not been named, I have sent a pencil-sketch with measurements to Dr. Ernst Hartert. He replies that it is surely new. I amn happy, therefore, to be able to name it in honor of Mr. George F. Baker, Jr."

On the Bower-bird recently described by Mr. C. W. De Vis as Cnemophilus mariae P.L.Sclater Color plates (Loria mariae): J.G. Keulemans Ibis: Volume 37, Issue 3, pages 343-344 1895 Opening lines: "As already recorded in this Journal Mr. C. W. De Vis, the Curator of the Queensland Museum, in a report, dated June 30th, 1894, and addressed to the Administrator of British New Guinea, described a collection of birds made by Captain Armit and Mr. Guise during Sir William Macgregor's recent exploration of Mount Maneao. Amongst the new birds characterized on this occasion was what Mr. De Vis considered at the time to be a second species of his lately instituted genus Cnemophilus, which was dedicated to Lady Macgregor as Cnemophilus maria. Of this species a male had been obtained on Mount Maneao in the month of April at an elevation of 6650 feet, and a young male and five females at 5000 feet."

Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds R. Bowdler-Sharpe Illustrations: W. Hart, J. Gould, J.G. Keulemans Henry Southeran 1891 (Vol 1), 1898 (Vol. 2) Originally published in 2 large folio volumes (in 8 original parts). Comprises 79 hand coloured lithographic plates by William Hart. 52 of these are based on his own artwork, the others are based on artwork by John Gould and John Gerrard Keulemans. Other editions of this work have subsequently been published.