Birds in Kansas
Volume II
Max C. Thompson and Charles Ely
Foreword by John Hayes
320 pages, 190 photographs, 208 maps, 6 x 9
Cloth ISBN 978-0-89338-039-7, $25.00
When you think of birds, you think
of songbirds--bluebirds, robins, bluejays, chickadees-and that
group of birds, the passerines, is featured in Volume II of Birds
in Kansas.
Of the 424 bird species that have been recorded in Kansas,
208 are passerines, commonly known as songbirds or, more accurately,
perching birds. (Many so-called songbirds, like crows, have terrible
voices and can't sing a note, but all of them can "perch.")
They include most of the birds you'll see at your feeder, and
many you won't: flycatchers, larks, swallows, jays and crows,
titmice, wrens, thrushes, waxwings, wood warblers, blackbirds,
tanagers, finches, and others.
All 208 species found in Kansas are discussed in Birds in
Kansas, Volume II. Abundantly illustrated with 199 photographs
and 208 range maps, this handbook provides the only comprehensive,
current, and authoritative treatment of the songbirds in the
state.
Written specifically for amateur birdwatchers and naturalists,
both volumes of Birds in Kansas provide the reader with common
and scientific names, distribution maps, photographs, and facts
concerning reported occurrence, breeding habits, habitats, field
marks (for identification), and food preferences. Volume I, published
in 1989, covers over 200 species of ducks and geese, gulls, herons,
woodpeckers, shorebirds, birds of prey, and other non-passerines.
Volume II is devoted solely to the passerines.
"This series, written in a nontechnical, informative
style, is the best group of books of its kind I have seen."--Robert
S. Hoffmann, Assistant Secretary for Research, Smithsonian
Institution
MAX C. THOMPSON is professor of biology at Southwestern
College.
CHARLES ELY is professor of zoology at Fort Hays State
University.
|