Fly With Me: A Celebration of Birds through Pictures, Poems, and Stories
Contents Introduction What Is A Bird What Defines a Bird Bird Anatomy Eggs Nests Home Sweet Home Gallery Beaks Beautiful Beaks Gallery Bones Wings Wondrous Wings Gallery Feathers Parts of a Feather Fabulous Feathers Gallery The Ancient History of Birds Dino Birds Birds in History Man’s Best Friend Falconry in the Middle Ages and Beyond Ravens of the Tower Audubon Christmas Bird Count The Peabody Ducks 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 42 44 46 48 50 52 State Birds Northern Flicker Willow Ptarmigan Cactus Wren Northern Mockingbird California Quail Lark Bunting American Robin Blue Hen Brown Thrasher Nene Mountain Bluebird Northern Cardinal American Goldfinch Western Meadowlark Brown Pelican Black-capped Chickadee Baltimore Oriole Common Loon Eastern Bluebird Purple Finch Greater Roadrunner Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Ruffed Grouse Rhode Island Red Carolina Wren Ring-necked Pheasant California Gull Hermit Thrush Wood Thrush OSPREY 54 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 83
Listening to Birds Birdsong Listening to Wrens Looking at Birds Birds Are All Around How to Photograph Birds Birds on the Move Migration The Missing Swallows of San Juan Capistrano Birds in Flocks Saving Our Birds Gone Forever Endangered Success Stories Bird Records Ostrich Bee Hummingbird Harpy Eagle Ostrich Sooty Tern Peregrine Falcon Horned Sungem American Woodcock Peacock Australian Pelican Malleefowl Vervain Hummingbird 84 86 88 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 106 108 112 118 124 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 Birds in the Arts Birds in Print Birds in Music Firebird the Ballet Birds in Poetry Birds on Screen Birds in Story The Archer and the Nightingale Raven Brings the Light Why Kookaburra’s Laugh Brings Up the Sun Why the Robin’s Breast Is Red The Tongue-Slit Sparrow Why the Buzzard Went South The Lady Partridge and the Fox Citizen Science Famous Citizen Scientists Becoming a Citizen Scientist Birds in Your Backyard Bird-Friendly Habitats Birds Outside Your Window A Bounty of Bird Feeders Gallery Authors Notes Acknowledgments Find Out More Credits List of Birds Index Photo Credits Copyright and Dedication 138 140 142 144 146 148 150 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172 174 176 180 182 183 184 186 188 189 191 192
4 BUDGERIGARS
Introduction FOR THE LOVE OF BIRDS There are millions of birds in almost every corner of our planet in all shapes and colors They live in woods and on mountains on the desert sands and sandy beaches They fly over meadows and farmlands perch in cities and towns live in frozen tundras dense forests and even in backyards They sing in great mixed choruses at dawn and smaller groups at dusk Some of them are awake in the day some in the night Birds are far older than humans having been the inheritors of the great dinosaurs many of which we are only now discovering were covered with feathers not scales Yet most of us rarely see the birds around us Or notice them Or can distinguish one type of bird from another either by sight or by sound But they are there in all their beauty As a family of birders we love birds and strive to know as much about them as possible And we have written this book to celebrate the beauty and majesty of birds with you We hope the stories and songs and science and poems found on these pages excite and inspire you to know more about the beautiful birds in our world too Jane Yolen Heidi E Y Stemple Adam Stemple and Jason Stemple 5
