Exotic Birds

Barbara Baatz Hillman's exotic birds shine with brilliant colors and enchanting personalities. Teamed up with gorgeous tropical flowers and lush foliage, you'll enjoy painting each colorful brushstroke. Following Barbara's precise step-by-step painted illustrations and thorough instructions, your painting expertise will bloom as you watch each bird and flower come to life. The seven dewdrop fresh projects include accent pieces, a family heirloom scrapbook, and an earth-friendly tote bag to bring rainforest charm into your home.

Let your imagination soar with these 16 masterful renderings of birds of paradise, huge-billed toucans, cockatoos, orioles, and more, outlined in bold black for drama. Printed on special translucent paper, they are perfect for crayon, watercolor, or acrylics. Color both sides for richer hues, then mount them on windows for a stunning stained glass effect. Pages are perforated for easy removal.

(back cover) Exotic Birds Detailed advice on selecting and keeping the world's most unusual birds Practical: Facts and photos to help you identify, choose, and buy exotic birds Clearly arranged: Illustrated bird profiles listed alphabetically with advice and information on bird care Informative: Extra features include an overview of major bird groups and advice on setting up indoor and outdoor aviaries More than 200 full-color photos

This book provides syntheses of ecological theories and overarching patterns of urban bird ecology that have only recently become available. The numerous habitats represented in this book ranges from rows of trees in wooded alleys, to wastelands and remnants of natural habitats encapsulated in the urban matrix. Authored by leading scientists in this emergent field, the chapters explore how the characteristics of the habitat in urban environments influence bird communities and populations at multiple levels of ecological organization and at different spatial and temporal scales, and how this information should be incorporated in urban planning to achieve an effective conservation of bird fauna in urban environments. Birds are among the most conspicuous and fascinating residents of urban neighborhoods and provide urban citizens with everyday wildlife contact all over the world. However, present urbanization trends are rapidly depleting their habitats, and thus knowledge of urban bird ecology is urgently needed if birds are to thrive in cities. The book is unique in its inclusion of examples from all continents (except Antarctica) in an effort to arrive at a more holistic perspective. Among other issues, the individual chapters address the censusing of birds in urban green spaces; the relationship between bird communities and the structure of urban green spaces; the role of exotic plant species as food sources for urban bird fauna; the influence of artificial light and pollutants on bird fauna; trends in long-term urban bird research, and transdisciplinary studies on bird sounds and their effects on humans. Several chapters investigate how our current knowledge of the ecology of urban bird fauna should be applied in order to achieve better management of urban habitats so as to achieve conservation of species or even increase species diversity. The book also provides a forward-looking summary on potential research directions. As such, it provides a valuable resource for urban ecologists, urban ecology students, landscape architects, city planners, decision makers and anyone with an interest in urban ornithology and bird conservation. Moreover, it provides a comprehensive overview for researchers in the fields of ecology and conservation of urban bird fauna.