Song Of The Butcher Bird

Download or read book Song of the Butcher Bird written by Gladys Mary Coles and published by Flambard. This book was released on 2007 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her tenth collection, Gladys Mary Coles brings together her poems about war and its effects - major themes throughout her work. She ranges across the centuries, from the Roman invasion of Britain to the 2005 terrorist bombings in London, with a special focus on the First and Second World Wars.

Download or read book Is Birdsong Music? written by Hollis Taylor and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A ground-breaking study of the songs of the pied butcherbird . . . intellectually engaging and also very entertaining as a fieldwork memoir.” —The Music Trust How and when does music become possible? Is it a matter of biology, or culture, or an interaction between the two? Revolutionizing the way we think about the core values of music and human exceptionalism, Hollis Taylor takes us on an outback road trip to meet the Australian pied butcherbird. Recognized for their distinct timbre, calls, and songs, both sexes of this songbird sing in duos, trios, and even larger choirs, transforming their flute-like songs annually. While birdsong has long inspired artists, writers, musicians, and philosophers, and enthralled listeners from all walks of life, researchers from the sciences have dominated its study. As a field musicologist, Taylor spends months each year in the Australian outback recording the songs of the pied butcherbird and chronicling their musical activities. She argues persuasively in these pages that their inventiveness in song surpasses biological necessity, compelling us to question the foundations of music and confront the remarkably entangled relationship between human and animal worlds. Equal parts nature essay, memoir, and scholarship, Is Birdsong Music? offers vivid portraits of the extreme locations where these avian choristers are found, quirky stories from the field, and an in-depth exploration of the vocalizations of the pied butcherbird. “Hollis Taylor has given us one of the most serious books ever written on animal music. Is Birdsong Music? is so engaging that all who care about humanity’s place on Earth should read it. We are certainly not the only musicians on this planet.” —David Rothenberg, author of Why Birds Sing

Download or read book Where Song Began written by Tim Low and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative and entertaining exploration of Australia’s distinctive birds and their unheralded role in global evolution Renowned for its gallery of unusual mammals, Australia is also a land of extraordinary birds. But unlike the mammals, the birds of Australia flew beyond the continent’s boundaries and around the globe many millions of years ago. This eye-opening book tells the dynamic but little-known story of how Australia provided the world with songbirds and parrots, among other bird groups, why Australian birds wield surprising ecological power, how Australia became a major evolutionary center, and why scientific biases have hindered recognition of these discoveries. From violent, swooping magpies to tool-making cockatoos, Australia’s birds are strikingly different from birds of other lands—often more intelligent and aggressive, often larger and longer-lived. Tim Low, a renowned biologist with a rare storytelling gift, here presents the amazing evolutionary history of Australia’s birds. The story of the birds, it turns out, is inseparable from the story of the continent itself and also the people who inhabit it.

Download or read book Bird Minds written by Gisela Kaplan and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cognitive abilities, suggesting plausible reasons for their appearance in Australian birds. Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Gisela’s well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour.

Download or read book The Backyard Birdsong Guide written by Donald Kroodsma and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2008-04-23 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaches about the habitat, behaviors, appearance, and songs of seventy-five Eastern and Central North American birds, and includes basic birdwatching guidelines and audio samples.

Download or read book This Bird Has Flown written by John Kruth and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). The Beatles' sixth studio album, Rubber Soul , was a game changer. By December 1965, when the album was released, the Beatles had played the first arena rock show at Shea Stadium for 55,000 delirious fans, been awarded MBE (Member of British Empire) medals, and were indisputably the greatest musical phenomenon since Elvis Presley. With their first film, A Hard Day's Night , John, Paul, George, and Ringo laid down the blueprint for everyone who ever wanted to form a group. The movie, entertaining as it was, became an instruction manual for aspiring pop stars of the day on how to play, dress, and act. Richard Lester's 1964 comedy turned out to be the touchstone for every music video that followed. Then, with the release of Rubber Soul , the Beatles created an artistic benchmark to which their peers measured their craft and creativity. Touring the world over two years, the band had grown up fast. Both musically and lyrically their new album represented a major leap. Upon hearing Rubber Soul , Bob Dylan allegedly remarked, "I get it, you're not cute anymore." Newsweek hailed the Beatles as "the Bards of Pop," while critic Greil Marcus claimed Rubber Soul was "the best album they would ever make." For Traffic's Steve Winwood, the album "broke everything open. It crossed music into a whole new dimension and was responsible for kicking off the sixties rock era." In This Bird Has Flown , John Kruth not only analyzes the songs and making of Rubber Soul , putting the album in context of the turbulent times in which it was created, but captures the spirit of musical innovation and poetry that makes the record a standout in the Beatle's canon.

Download or read book The Burgess Bird Book for Children written by Thornton W. Burgess and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Downy the Woodpecker, Spooky the Screech Owl, and other winged creatures tell Peter Cottontail about their migration patterns, calls, nesting habits, and more in this blend of fact and fiction. 32 black-and-white illustrations.