Marianne Taylor - The Pocket Book of Bird Anatomy

BLOOMSBURY WILDLIFE

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK

BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY WILDLIFE and the Diana logo
are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain 2020

This electronic edition published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright text and illustrations UniPress Books Limited, 2020

For legal purposes, the constitute an extension of this copyright page

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any thirdparty websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author, copyright holder and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: HB: 978-1-4729-7692-5, ePDF: 978-1-4729-7690-1, ePub: 978-1-4729-7691-8

Conceived, designed and produced by UniPress Books Limited

To find out more about our authors please visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

For all items sold, Bloomsbury Publishing will donate a minimum of 2% of the publishers receipts from sales of licensed titles to RSPB Sales Ltd, the trading subsidiary of the RSPB. Subsequent sellers of this book are not commercial participators for the purpose of Part II of the Charities Act 1992.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

In the world today, there are about 10,000 species of birds. They range in size from the 2g (0.07oz) Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) to the Ostrich, Struthio camelus, which weighs in at some 110kg (220lb). There are birds native to every part of every continent, and between them they exploit every kind of habitat from desert and ice cap to the lushest forest. Among them are record-breaking high-fliers, death-defying deep-sea divers, fearsome killers and the most devoted of lovers. Yet despite all of this variety, their anatomical forms show great consistency. Avian traits are instantly and irrefutably apparent in every bird.