Bird Families of the World: A Guide to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds

Bird Families of the World, An Invitation to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds offers a synopsis of the diversity of all birds, distilling the extensive detail of the 17-volume Handbook of Birds of the World into one book. It is designed to be simply the best single-volume entry to avian diversity available. The majority of the variation in the behavior and appearance of birds is summarized at the family level. Anyone who knows all the families of the world's birds will be very well acquainted with the various kinds of birds, the ways they behave and look, and how and where they live. This volume makes such knowledge available to any reader: For each family, there is a distribution map with the breeding, non-breeding and year-round ranges, standardized descriptions of the appearance, summaries of diet and feeding behavior, breeding biology, conservation status, and an up-to-date summary of the state of knowledge of relationships. The work is liberally illustrated with photographs from bird enthusiasts around the globe as well as paintings of one species from each of the genera in each family. Whether you are a birder with an interest in global bird diversity or a professional ornithologist, this beautiful and serviceable guide will provide a mental map to help you organize your experiences and observations.