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How to Use The Warbler Guide‘s Species Accounts

May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle have created the most innovative and complete guide to warblers available in their forthcoming book The Warbler Guide. We will be posting a series of videos that highlight and explain how to use some of the key features of the book over the coming weeks. In this video, they describe the features of the species accounts which have been optimized to make them easy to use and to aid in identification.

Click here to learn more about The Warbler Guide. The book will be available July 2013.
For more tips on how to use The Warbler Guide and how to identify warblers in the field, please see additional videos in this series.

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Parrots of the World Debuts in House of Cards

April 1, 2013 by

Forshaw_Parrots of the World_F10Even House Majority Whips need some ornithology schooling. Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey in the Netflix series House of Cards, demonstrates in episode 12 of season one that birds–specifically parrots–maintain exquisite complexities in both behavior and appearance that differentiate one species from another. Such intricacies are not easily detectable to the untrained eye. Fortunately, Underwood finds the publisher and field guide to solve his parrot identification dilemma: Princeton University Press’s Parrots of the World, written by Joseph. M. Forshaw and illustrated by Frank Knight.

When asked to identify the caged bird in the kitchen of Raymond Tusk, played by Gerald McRaney, Underwood, who hails from South Carolina’s 5th congressional district, dismissively offers, “Carolina Parakeet,” a “midsize green parrot with yellow head” with orange upper cheeks. “You’re wrong, but you’re close,” rebuts Tusk. He expounds, as noted in Parrots of the World, the Carolina Parakeet is extinct; the winged beauty in the room is a Sun Conure, a “black-billed yellow conure with green primaries and secondary-converts.”

Underwood comes to realize he has been too quick to assume and should have first honed his identification skills, both in birding and the context of his political conquest. Don’t follow in his footsteps–take a closer look at some Parrots of the World two-page spreads here:

whiteFrom the macaws of South America to the cockatoos of Australia, parrots are among the most beautiful and exotic birds in the world–and also among the most endangered. This stunningly illustrated, easy-to-use field guide covers all 356 species and well-differentiated subspecies of parrots, and is the only guide organized by geographical distribution–Australasian, Afro-Asian, and neotropical. It features 146 superb color plates depicting every kind of parrot, as well as detailed, facing-page species accounts that describe key identification features, distribution, subspeciation, habitat, and status. Color distribution maps show ranges of all subspecies, and field identification is further aided by relevant upperside and underside flight images. This premier field guide also shows where to observe each species in the wild, helping make this the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the parrots of the world.

To stay current with Princeton University Press’s natural history endeavors, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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A Q&A with Richard Crossley

March 18, 2013 by

The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors is literally shipping today from our warehouse to retailers all over the world. It seems like an opportune time to get Richard Crossley’s thoughts on the response so far to the Crossley ID Guide series, the decision to publish a guide to raptors, and what’s next on the horizon for this popular series. Happily, Richard took a short break from his hefty travel schedule (he was in Seattle last week, Massachusetts Audubon this week to talk about the Crossley books) to answer a few questions:

 

RichardPUP: The Raptors guide is the second in the popular The Crossley ID Guide series. We published the Eastern Birds in 2011. What was the response like to the Eastern Birds guide? Did anything surprise you?

Crossley: The response has been everything I hoped for. No real surprises.

PUP: You’ve been traveling a lot to talk about The Crossley ID Guide. What has the response been from birders?

Crossley: Mixed. Most love it, but some are finding old habits die hard. The Peterson system was a game changer in its day and some people have spent their whole life looking at a sideways bird on a white piece of paper with an arrow pointing at one of the bird’s features. But I’ve always thought we can do better so I challenge readers with complex scenes with multiple birds at different angles, realistic backgrounds, and no arrows. To change a lifetime habit will take time, but my book is based on an understanding of how the mind works and how we learn. Using modern technology we can make images more lifelike, complete, and understandable. For the expert who already has a wealth of knowledge, some of these things are not as vital as for the beginner, but my system is designed around how we learn everything else and it will work for almost everyone.

combo coversPUP: Why did you decide to publish the Raptors guide next?

Crossley: Because it only covers North American raptors it offers a nice contrast to The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds. Because there are fewer species to cover, we can include lots of panoramic double page spreads and each species gets several pages of coverage. While both books have the same in-focus scenes, the additional space really demonstrates the flexibility of this style of imagery and how lifelike scenes are more engaging and informative. Plus we can include lots questions and other thought-provoking things to interest the viewer. The Eastern Birds book introduced the Crossley ID Guides to the world, and the Raptors guide really shows how powerful and beautiful this system of learning can be.

PUP: The plates in the Raptors guide are phenomenal. Do you have a personal favorite? Which raptor was the most difficult to photograph?

Crossley: Thank you. There are lots of plates I really like—you would hope so since I designed them! The one I get the most feedback on is the double page American Kestrel plate—it catches the eye for most people. As a ‘designer’ it is always interesting to try and work out why something is so popular.

1 - kestrel

As for the most difficult to photograph, my stock answer is the one I wasn’t able to get. Thankfully Jerry and Brian have fantastic collections of images that made ‘Raptors’ a relatively easy project.

PUP: That brings up another question. The Eastern Birds was a single authored project. For the Raptors guide you are collaborating with co-authors Jerry Liguori and Brian Sullivan. What was that like?

Crossley: Jerry and Brian are two of the best. Jerry has published several highly acclaimed Raptor books and Brian is a well-known photographer and project manager for eBird. I have known both since the 1980’s—scary how time flies—so there were not a lot of surprises. They handled nearly all the writing and Crossley Books handled the visual side of things. They did a great job. They were asked “to be the bird” for the introductory section of the species accounts and these accounts may well be the highlight of the book. They really give you a fantastic sense of each species’ personality and lifestyle.

PUP: You shot the majority of the photos in the book and they are beautiful. Do you have any special tips or tricks to photograph raptors?

Crossley: Shooting Raptors is the same as for other birds. I am a big fan of travelling light and I always have my camera ready so that when the moment comes it is as simple as point and shoot. The moment often comes when you are not expecting it. The question is, “are you ready for that moment,” because you will never have it again.

PUP: Fans of the Shorebird guide will be pleasantly surprised to find you’ve included mystery plates in the Raptors guide. What was behind that decision?

Crossley: The Crossley ID Guides will always be about inspiring people to understand and relate to nature. Giving people a quick-fix answer is not the goal. The more we look, the more we learn! Questions are the key to understanding because they make us look, see, and ultimately, understand. This is how we learn. People love working out puzzles because they are fun and because they help us improve at whatever we do. The sense of accomplishment and understanding that come from figuring out the answer for ourselves is a powerful aphrodisiac for nature.

PUP: Many of the plates show birds from odd angles—above, below, behind—or in less than ideal lighting situations. Why did you choose to include these plates?

011-early-morning-light-mystery

Crossley: Nature occurs at odd angles and in varying light. The goal of The Crossley ID Guide is to make the images so lifelike that when you see a bird in the field, it matches what you have seen before in the book.

Research shows us that the mind is very good at working things out. The problem comes when we don’t tell the whole story. It is important to show everyone—particularly beginners—the complete picture so they can work it out and understand what they are seeing. If you’ve only seen one image of a bird standing still, looking to the right, and painted in full color, how will this help you identify a bird flying overhead at dusk? The same goes for plumages. So-called “beginner books” often show birds in their brightest breeding plumage and the dullest nonbreeding plumage without showing them in transition between. This is a great way to confuse the reader.

PUP: Speaking of “beginners”, you’ve recently co-founded a new initiative, Pledge to Fledge. Can you tell us a bit about that and where The Crossley ID Guide and books like it fit in?

Crossley: The goal with everything I do these days is to popularize nature, the outdoors and a healthier lifestyle. Ultimately, getting more people involved in birding and nature will result in positive impacts for conservation. Pledge to Fledge is a global birding initiative for birdwatchers to introduce a friend, family member, an associate, or anyone they know to birding. Organisations are encouraged to do it on a larger scale, too. By fledging a birder, taking the ‘pledge’ on the Pledge to Fledge web site (www.pledgetofledge.org), and sharing your stories globally through social media, birdwatchers around the world can help grow birding. We invite everyone to take part in April and August. Pledge to Fledge is an organization for us all to come together and make a difference.

The Crossley ID Guide series is part of this popularization because the books make birds and nature accessible, too. With the publication of The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland, we’re taking this message to a global audience, and while we don’t have additional plans for international guides at this time, the opportunities for places such as China are very exciting.

PUP: You’ve mentioned the Britain and Ireland guide, so that brings me to the million dollar question. What else is coming down the pike and will you publish other books on specific groups of birds?

Crossley: There are a number of books in The Crossley ID Guide series that are close to completion. A complete guide for Britain and Ireland will come out this November. That will be closely followed by a guide to Waterfowl and then a major guide to Western Birds of North America. We hope to have both of those books out in 2014 and have additional projects planned after that. Fun times but some sleep would be nice!

PUP: Last question, I promise. Who is the audience for the Raptors guide? How do you hope people will use it?

Crossley: Given the previous answers, I hope everyone will recognize it is for you. It is for people who love the beautiful outdoors. And, of course, it is for people who enjoy birds; who want to know their personalities and how they feed and behave; and who want to connect in a way that is different to other published Raptor guides. If you want to identify, age and sex birds, we believe it is the best. The mystery photos are suitable for beginners and intermediate birders. There is something for everyone.

Birding for me is a voyage of discovery that is exciting. I always wish discovery to be at the heart our books. Hopefully, this will prove to be a book that everyone enjoys for some reason, even if they didn’t expect to. Well, that is my dream…..

PUP: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

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I have been waiting for this review in The Finch and Pea, and boy was it worth it!

March 5, 2013 by

When I first approached the editor of The Finch and Pea about possibly reviewing The Unfeathered Bird, he suggested I send three copies and he would ask his colleagues to assist him with a new experiment — a review in three parts. The review(s) have just now published and they were well worth the wait. Calling upon experts in three areas — art; ornithology; and, well, book-reading and curiosity–The Finch and Pea has created a lovely, intertwined reading experience that (fortunately) is also positive about the book being reviewed.

“Daddy, what is this book about?”

“It’s a book about birds. It shows you the insides of birds so we can learn how they work.”

In the “layers” portion of the review (though it really is the curiosity, good-parenting, reading part of the review) Josh Witten describes his 4 year-old catching a first glimpse of The Unfeathered Bird. Subsequent conversations ranged over ostriches at the zoo, penguins, finches, robins, and every other bird a 4-year old might want to discuss. But, as Witten describes:

A book like The Unfeathered Bird is more than pretty pictures and informative prose. It is a resource – a bridge – to knowledge and curiosity. What let’s that hummingbird hover at your feeder? Page 80. How does that vulture find the roadkill? Page X. Our lives are filled with everyday events that make us wonder, “How does that work?”; and we so rarely get the answers. What could be more compelling than those creatures that have mastered the air?

Next up, Michelle Banks approaches the book from an artist’s perspective, which initially makes her a bit skeptical:

I approached this book as a visual artist and a decidedly non-expert reader, and I will admit an initial bias against it. I love color. I was convinced that a coffee-table book of birds drawn without their feathers was like producing a book on ice cream that featured only the cones.

Though after a few days with the book, skepticism is pushed aside:

The cream-colored pages, sepia-tinted pencil drawings, and hand-drawn fonts give the book the look of a timeless classic….The book is full of visual delights. If I had to pick a single image that sums it up, Van Grouw’s rendering of an ostrich skeleton (p 229) is a tour de force, both exquisitely detailed and powerfully dramatic. The Unfeathered Bird is itself a unique specimen. While it’s sure to be treasured by bird-lovers, it has much to offer to readers who don’t know a grebe from a loon.

Lastly, Rebecca Heiss puts her hefty ornithology education credentials to work assessing the avian content of the book — the devil is in the details after all. Early on, Katrina decided to use a rather traditional system to categorize and group birds, a departure that Heiss describes:

Nodding to Linnaeus, the godfather of modern classification systems, van Grouw charges into the meat of her book, pairing species by anatomical features that appear to be common between the species. As it turns out, many of these features actually evolved independently through a process known as convergent evolution. In recent years, we have tended to reject groupings based on morphology in favor of grouping that reflect a species evolutionary history determined by DNA sequence. The old school naturalist in me, celebrates this throwback to the days where morphology was king and features were classified and compared based on functional similarity. Apologies to all my molecularly focused colleagues, but van Grouw’s pairings simply work for a book of this nature. It may be my bias as an organismal biologist, but focusing on functional similarity is the “right” way to organize species when your goal is teach people about the mechanics of birds. It also allows van Grouw to highlight the interesting and confusing aspects of convergent evolution.

secretary-birdWhich image most caught Heiss’s eye?

To me, the power of this section was represented by the Secretary Bird. An intimidating image of a majestic, tall, and powerful bird, glowering beneath overhanging “eyebrows”, dominates a page while the accompanying text details its unique hunting habits. Those long, powerful legs are not just for show. The Secretary Bird uses them to literally stomp and kick its prey to death. Of course it does. Just look at the picture.

 

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A bird book goes to Africa

March 4, 2013 by

When Rick Ludkin reached out to us about purchasing a quantity of The Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania for an upcoming trip he had planned, we dutifully took his order, wished him safe travels as one is supposed to when a person is flying halfway across the world, and scarcely gave it another thought. Well, Rick has returned from what must be, from all accounts, the trip of a lifetime and he is blogging about the experience at his Ruthven Park Nature Blog:

My prime “project” in Matangwe was to teach the students about their birds. I had a couple of reasons for doing this: general appreciation of their wildlife; awareness of the region’s various habitats and how they relate to bird populations; identification skills for their own injoyment but also for possible future work as tourist guides and/or field assistants; use of nets and traps for banding with a view to the possible establishment of a banding program for research into African birds and for the development of an eco-tourism destination (this would be a long-term goal).

Source: Ruthven Park Nature Blog, February 28, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6374

It is thrilling, as a publisher, to see our books being put to such wonderful, educational use in the field. Rick taught several hundred youngsters how to read a field guide, how to use binoculars, and how to set up mist nets to trap and band birds.

The children review the weavers in Zimmerman, et al's Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Photo credit: Rick Ludkin

The children review the weavers in Zimmerman, et al’s
Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania
Photo credit: Rick Ludkin

To illustrate the challenges Rick faced, here is a short excerpt:

Remember: up until this point, birds were primarily thought of as a food source. To highlight this, there are over 30 species of Weavers at least 10 of which occur in their area. But they had just one name for them: Osogos. Not Jackson’s Golden-backed Weaver or Yellow-backed Weaver or Spectacled Weaver or Black-headed Weaver….just Osogo. Sort of like beef rather than Angus or Hereford or Holstein or Ayrshire. Once they “got” the concept of species they were away to the races….but that took awhile.

Source: Ruthven Park Nature Blog, February 28, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6374

However, thanks to Rick’s efforts, he soon had hundreds of students assisting him in setting up and banding birds. The initiative was so successful in fact, he writes:

I had close to 300 bands. I figured this would be plenty (and so did Titus Imbomo at the National Museum who supplied me with them). But I ran out by the third week – I could have banded twice as many if I had had more bands. Oh well….next year.

Source: Ruthven Park Nature Blog, February 22, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6342

Hopefully Rick will manage to return next year and he and his students will find our field guide as useful a second time around. In the meantime, you can check out his blogs and photographs of birds he banded while in Africa.

February 21, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6306

February 22, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6342

February 28, 2013: http://www.ruthvenpark.ca/natureblog/?p=6374

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A sneak peek at Avian Architecture by Peter Goodfellow

April 28, 2011 by

We are publishing Avian Architecture in June. Here, author Peter Goodfellow, reflects on birds as architects which gives us a good opportunity to share some sneak peeks at some page spreads (click on the smaller images below to see larger versions). Enjoy!

This spring I was talking to a lady who said, “Oh, I’m not like you. I really do not like birds!” At the other extreme there are men and women – you may know one – who are fanatical birders, “twitchers” in fact, who must see as many species as possible.

There’s more to the topic of birds than those two points of view. Writers and lovers of wildlife have hit on one quality which birds have which suggests they are not dull or dumb creatures – their ability to be “architects”. One could even say, “We have learned all that skill from the birds, and live like them, as the following examples suggest!”

Take the American Robin Turdus migratorius for example. On arrival in their breeding territory the homely couple build a cup-shaped nest in a bush. It is just big enough to house the growing family. After hatching from four blue eggs the young are tended carefully by both parents. In contrast, the bird world has landed gentry in the impressive presence of Mute Swans Cygnus olor. These large birds build a substantial mound-nest of water weed at the edge of their territory, the lake, which is as jealously guarded by the male against intruders, as any pop-star’s villa surrounded by a wall.

Big societies have their problem inhabitants. Thieves and robbers raid as soon as our backs are turned. Pairs of Eurasian Rooks Corvus frugilegus build high in treetops in a colony of maybe several dozen pairs. Careful observation reveals that the cock birds are repeatedly quick to steal sticks from a neighbour’s nest to build up their own, rather than hunt for new ones.

Many birds are content, like we are, with small families. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris builds a tiny nest for a family of just two. The Common Eider Somateria mollissima , however, lays up to ten eggs in a nest on the ground, wonderfully insulated with its own down (mollissima means most soft), which for centuries has been harvested in northern Europe to make – you’ve guessed it – eiderdowns. The young join other families and are looked after in a crêche by other Eiders known as “aunties”.

Birds such as Purple Martins Progne subis use rented accommodation, large specially made nest boxes for several pairs. The Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla lives with maybe hundreds of others in a sea- cliff condominium. Each pair builds a sturdy nest of weed on a ledge, where they rear their two young.

In modern Human life there are two aspects which birds thought of first. A fine example of the Do-It-Yourself Bird (or Hen-pecked Husband, depending on your point of view) is the Winter Wren Troglodytes troglodytes. The male may build half a dozen nests in spring. He shows his chosen female a nest who just puts the finishing touches to it, lining it with feathers. In complete contrast is one of the leaders of the Women’s Liberation Movement, the Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus. She lays four eggs in a scrape in the ground. She then leaves them, and they are incubated by the male, who continues the home duties by rearing the young until they fledge after about three weeks.

Sir John Collings Squire (1884-1958) was born in my home town of Plymouth – the original Plymouth, England! He was an influential literary editor and published poet. In conclusion, I offer here his thoughts about birds and their nests, and hope that you will find birds’ nests as wonderful as he and I believe:

O delicate chain over all the ages stretched,
O dumb tradition from what far darkness fetched:
Each little architect with its one design
Perpetual, fixed and right in stuff and line,
Each little ministrant who knows one thing,
One learned rite to celebrate the spring.
Whatever alters else on sea or shore,
These are unchanging: Man must still explore.

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