Seabirds: a Natural History
by Anthony J. Gaston, the consumate expert on seabirds
Notes by J. Zimmerman

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Seabirds: a Natural History by Anthony J. Gaston, the consumate expert on seabirds Introduction. Types of Seabird. Adaptation. Plumage. Distribution and Communities. Feeding Behavior. Migration and movement. Breeding, Coloniality and its Consequences. Birth and Death: Theory. Birth and Death: Observations. Natural History of Birds: student notes from 2007 UCSC class taught by Prof. W. Breck Taylor: Day 1: Wings; flight; field observations in redwood glades. Day 2: Avian origins and systematics. Day 3: Field Trip to Davenport and Waddell Creek. Day 4: Feeding. Day 5: Field Trip to Elkhorn Slough by kayak. Day 6: Seabird and shorebird ecology. Day 7: Migration and molt. Day 8: Field Trip to Big Sur Ornithological Laboratory and Andrew Molera State Park. Day 9: Communication and nesting. Day 10: Mating systems and social behavior. Day 11: Bird conservation, part One. Day 12: Bird conservation, part Two. Other Bird Books The Ecology Footprint quiz Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley. Completed as part of a study of Natural History of Birds. See also Sibley's The Sibley Guide to Birds and his The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.

1. Introduction

2. Types of Seabird

3. Adaptation

4. Plumage

5. Distribution and Communities

6. Feeding Behavior

7. Migration and movement

8. Breeding, Coloniality and its Consequences

9. Birth and Death: Theory

10. Birth and Death: Observations

Books

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America by David Allen Sibley.

• Birdsong by Don Stap.
• The Birds of California by Arnold Small.

• Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival by Carl Safina.
  Its "Prelude" is well focused on the albatross, with interesting facts like:

  Compared to many other birds, which power flight with elongated 'hand' bones, the proportions of an albatross wing are humanlike -- long arm bones, short 'hand' bones -- almost as though humans were also meant to glide. Or as if, were we suddenly transformed into birds, we would most naturally become albatrosses.

  
  and:

  A fifty-year-old albatross has flown, at minimum, 3.7 million miles.

  
  But the rest of the book puts too much emphasis on tales of various adventures and not enough on the Albatross. The quotations from the poem by The English poets Coleridge are inevitable.

• Handbook of Bird Biology edited by S. Podulka et al.
• National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America, 5th edition edited by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer.
• Seabirds: A Natural History by A.J. Gaston.
• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America by David Allen Sibley.
• The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley.
• Sibley's Birding Basics written and illustrated by David Allen Sibley.

Also:

A Primer of Ecology by Nicholas J. Gotelli. 'Evolution' by Edward J Larson.

The Ecology Footprint quiz

• The Ecology Footprint quiz. Check it out to calculate what is your own impact on Gaia.

  Population Connection's Reporter (Winter 2004) gives:

  1. The current average American ("Eusan") footprint is over 10 hectares (25 acres).
  2. The current worldwide average footprint is 2.4 hectares (6 acres), which exceeds the available acreage.
  3. "Prof. David Pimentel estimates that the Earth can support from one to two billion people with a U.S. standard of living, good health, nutrition, prosperity, personal dignity, and freedom. ... The scenarios below [adapted from Prof. Ross McCluney's on-line data] estimate the shifts in quality of life as world population continues to grow, if we maintain current patterns of consumption."

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