How Birds Migrate

Everything visitors want to know about these parks, including their histories, plant and animal life, and conservation issues. Also includes field guides, life lists, and stunning color photos. Unveils the mysteries of bird migration Ornithologist Paul Kerlinger writes in an engaging style for all bird lovers.

This is an excellent, popular, yet authoritative explanation of bird migration by the former director of Cape May Bird Observatory. The widely published Kerlinger (The Book of Owls, Univ. of Texas Pr., 1993) is an authority on owl and hawk migration and is widely published. Here he confronts the mystery and complexity of the unbelievable travels of birds: how and why, for example, a hummingbird that weighs one-sixth of an ounce flies from breeding grounds in New Hampshire to winter in Costa Rica. A major virtue is the insertion of hundreds of "case studies" to illustrate the author's analysis and points set off from the rest of the text. Worldwide in scope, the book's chapters concern how migration is studied, why it takes place, barriers, rest stops, flocking behavior, speed and distance, navigation, conservation, mechanics of flight, flight height and strategy, and day and night migrations. A provocative inquiry; highly recommended.-Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Thomas Jefferson Univ. Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.