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University of Texas Press: Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology.

This page books published by the University of Texas Press in the Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology.


University of Texas Press pages

Corrie Herring Hooks Series

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

Other bird related books


 

The Albatross and the Fish: Linked Lives in the Open Seas

Robin W Doughty and Virginia Carmichael

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2011

"Breeding on remote ocean islands and spending much of its life foraging for food across vast stretches of seemingly empty seas, the albatross remains a legend for most people. And yet, humans are threatening the albatross family to such an extent that it is currently the most threatened bird group in the world. In this extensively researched, highly readable book, Robin W. Doughty and Virginia Carmichael sound an alarm over the potentially catastrophic extinction process that has gone largely unremarked by governments and fishing interests around the globe. Doughty and Carmichael authoritatively establish that the albatross's fate is linked to the fate of two of the highest-value table fish, Bluefin Tuna and Patagonian Toothfish, which are threatened by unregulated commercial harvesting. The authors tell us that commercial fishing techniques are annually killing tens of thousands of albatrosses. And the authors explain how the breeding biology of albatrosses makes them unable to replenish their numbers at the rate they are being depleted. Doughty and Carmichael set the albatross's fate in the larger context of threats facing the ocean commons, ranging from industrial overfishing to our habit of dumping chemicals, solid waste, and plastic trash into the open seas. They also highlight the efforts of dedicated individuals, environmental groups, fishery management bodies, and governments who are working for seabird and fish conservation and demonstrate that these efforts can lead to sustainable solutions for the iconic seabirds and the entire ocean ecosystem."

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Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America: The Passerines

Robert S. Ridgely & Guy Tudor

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2009

"With the publication of the landmark volumes The Birds of South America: The Oscine Passerines and The Birds of South America: The Suboscine Passerines, Robert S. Ridgely and Guy Tudor established themselves as the leading authorities on the songbirds of South America. Reviewers hailed the volumes as the essential reference works for professional ornithologists and avocational birders alike, and they remain the only volumes that provide full scientific coverage of the continent's passerines. Recognizing the need for a more compact guide that birders can take into the field, Ridgely and Tudor have now extracted and updated the essential identification information from The Birds of South America to create the Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America. This definitive guide is filled with indispensable features: 121 color plates that present Guy Tudor's magnificently detailed paintings of more than 1,500 species of songbirds, including more than 400 that were not illustrated in BOSA; 160 additional color illustrations of subspecies and females; extensively updated color range maps for all of the species in the field guide, prepared by Robert S. Ridgely with technical assistance from Maria Allen and Terry Clarke, appear opposite the plates for each bird family; Robert S. Ridgely's authoritative accounts of nearly 2,000 species that cover each bird's abundance, habitat, and range; elevational preference; taxonomic or nomenclatural changes; plumage description; general behavior and voice; and range beyond South America, if applicable."

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The Seasons of the Robin

Don Grussing

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2009

"In The Seasons of the Robin, Don Grussing tells the uncommon life story of one of the most common birds, the North American Robin. Written as fiction to capture the high drama that goes on unnoticed right outside our windows, the book follows a young male robin through the first year of life. From his perspective, we experience many common episodes of a bird's life-struggling to get out of the egg; awkwardly attempting to master flight; learning to avoid predators; migrating for the first time; returning home; establishing a territory; finding a mate; and beginning the cycle again. This creative approach of presenting natural history through a fictional, yet factually based, story allows us to experience the spine-tingling, nerve-wracking, adrenaline-flowing excitement that is so much a part of the life of every wild thing. As Don Grussing concludes in his preface, Once you experience the world through a robin's eyes, I hope you'll look at every wild thing with new appreciation and respect for what they accomplish by living."

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Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography

Douglas Carlson

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2007

"In this authoritative, highly readable biography of Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996), Douglas Carlson creates a fascinating portrait of the complex, often conflicted man behind the brand name. He describes how Peterson's obsession with birds began in boyhood and continued throughout a multifaceted career as a painter, writer, educator, environmentalist, and photographer. Carlson traces Peterson's long struggle to become both an accomplished bird artist and a scientific naturalist - competing goals that drove Peterson to work to the point of exhaustion and that also deprived him of many aspects of a normal personal life. Carlson also records Peterson's many lasting achievements, from the phenomenal success of the field guides, to the bird paintings that brought him renown as 'the twentieth century's Audubon,' to the establishment of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to carry on his work in conservation and education."

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Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out of Its Shell

Carrol L. Henderson

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2007

"Before modern binoculars and cameras made it possible to observe birds closely in the wild, many people collected eggs as a way of learning about birds. Serious collectors called their avocation 'oology' and kept meticulous records for each set of eggs: the bird's name, the species reference number, the quantity of eggs in the clutch, the date and location where the eggs were collected, and the collector's name. These documented egg collections, which typically date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, now provide an important baseline from which to measure changes in the numbers, distribution, and nesting patterns of many species of birds.In "Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs", Carrol L. Henderson uses the vast egg collection of Ralph Handsaker, an Iowa farmer, as the starting point for a fascinating account of oology and its role in the origins of modern birdwatching, scientific ornithology, and bird conservation in North America. Henderson describes Handsaker's and other oologists' collecting activities, which included not only gathering bird eggs in the wild but also trading and purchasing eggs from collectors around the world. Henderson then spotlights sixty of the nearly five hundred bird species represented in the Handsaker collection, using them to tell the story of how birds such as the Snowy Egret, Greater Prairie Chicken, Atlantic Puffin, and Wood Duck have fared over the past hundred years or so since their eggs were gathered. Photos of the eggs and historical drawings and photos of the birds illustrate each species account. Henderson also links these bird histories to major milestones in bird conservation and bird protection laws in North America from 1875 to the present."

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Bird-Witched!: How Birds Can Change a Life

Marjorie Valentine Adams

Foreword: Greg Lasley and Chuck Sexton

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2005

"Birding can become an addiction. It starts when you hang a bird feeder in the backyard. Then you buy a bird book to identify the birds you see. Then, before you know it, you're keeping a life list and travelling the region, the country, perhaps even the world to catch glimpses of rare birds. Marjorie Adams' birding passion progressed through all these stages and continues today in her tenth decade.In this engaging and informative book, she looks back at her evolution into a full-fledged birder and the concurrent growth of the sport of birding, to which she contributed significantly as a founder of the American Birding Association, a newspaper columnist on birding, and a teacher and producer of educational wildlife films with her husband and lifelong birding partner, "Red" Adams. As one who was there from the beginning, Marjorie Adams is uniquely qualified to recount the astonishing rise of birding to a major pastime and recreational industry. She describes the founding of the American Birding Association and profiles its first director, James A. Tucker.She vividly recalls many of her and Red's birding adventures, from southern Canada to Mexico, as well as their encounters with a host of highly regarded birders, including Roger Tory Peterson, Pete Dunne, Victor Emmanuel, Charles Hartshorne, and Roy Bedichek. She also explains how her and Red's love for birds led them to become conservation activists and how they produced an award-winning film on the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler."

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Birds of Tropical America

Steven Hilty

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

University of Texas Press

2005

"Birds of Tropical America was published by Chapters Publishing in 1994 and went out of print in 1997. UT Press is pleased to reissue it with a new epilogue and updated references."

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Last updated November 2011