Birds Britannica

Last updated
Birds Britannica
Birds Britannica.jpg
Author
CountryUnited Kingdom
Genre Ornithology
Publisher Chatto & Windus
Publication date
1 September 2005 (2005-09-01)
Pages484
ISBN 0-7011-6907-9
Preceded by'Flora Britannica 
Followed by'Bugs Britannica 

Birds Britannica is a book by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey, [1] about the birds of the United Kingdom, and a sister volume to Mabey's 1996 [2] Flora Britannica, [1] [2] about British plants. It was published in 2005 [2] by Chatto & Windus. [2]

Mark Cocker British author and naturalist

Mark Cocker is a British author and naturalist. He lives and works deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife, Mary Muir, and two daughters in Claxton. All of his eight books have dealt with modern responses to the wild, whether found in landscape, human societies or in other species.

Richard Thomas Mabey is a writer and broadcaster, chiefly on the relations between nature and culture.

Bird Warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates with wings, feathers and beaks

Birds, also known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m (9 ft) ostrich. They rank as the world's most numerically-successful class of tetrapods, with approximately ten thousand living species, more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which evolved from forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in flightless birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species of birds. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming.

Contents

According to the project's official website: [1]

It covers cultural links; social history; birds as food; ecology; the lore and language of birds; myths, art, literature and music; anecdotes, birdsong and rare facts; modern developments; migration, the seasons and our sense of place.

Over 1,000 members of the public provided details of their observations and experiences, [1] during the book's eight-year [1] research period. Mabey's contribution was limited by his depression, [2] leading to Cocker having a leading role, doing the bulk of the work [3] and this more prominent credit.

Reviews

The Guardian described the book as "a glorious encyclopedia" [2] and Cocker as "British bird life's perfect encyclopedist". [2] The Times said "The entries for every species are a fascinating distillation of expert knowledge, personal account, reminiscence, literary reference and folk belief". [3]

<i>The Guardian</i> British national daily newspaper

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, the Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders.

<i>The Times</i> British daily compact newspaper owned by News UK

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently, and have only had common ownership since 1967.

See also

Birds Britannia is a BBC's four-part television series about the birds of the United Kingdom, first shown from 7 to 28 November 2010 on BBC Four. It was produced by Stephen Moss.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker & Richard Mabey". Random House. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dee, Tim (2005-08-20). "Review: Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey". The Guardian . Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  3. 1 2 Marsden, Philip (2005-08-21). "Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey – Times Online". The Times . Retrieved 21 November 2010.


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