The Skuas 

Robert W.Furness. Many birdwatchers may never have seen a skua; those who have will most probably have vivid memories of one or other species flying powerfully past a headland or twisting and diving in pursuit of its piratical intentions towards a food-laden seabird-or, perhaps more memorable still, of themselves taking evasive action from the power-diving irate skua whose territory they have unwisely invaded. The full classification of the skuas is still debated, but Dr Furness of the Applied Ornithology Unit, Glasgow University, favours six species ,of two genera, with five sub-species, based on current knowledge of his own long and dedicated field studies and research.
Hardback;1987.363pp.b/w photos, sketches, line drawings, maps, charts etc.

Skuas and Jaegers

Skuas (or jaegers) are a popular group of seabirds. This title examines in detail all the identification problems associated with this difficult group. The taxonomy of the world's seven species of skuas has long been a subject of debate, compounded by the difficulty of distinguishing between the four catharacta species in the field. Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson are also the author and illustrator of "Terns of Europe and North America".

The Arctic Skua: A study of the ecology and evolution of a seabird

This book describes the results of a long-term study of the ecology, evolutionary genetics and sociobiology of a seabird, the Arctic Skua. This species is polymorphic: the birds show one of three, genetically different forms of plumage - pale, intermediate and dark. The forms vary in frequency from predominantly pale in the north to dark in the south. The study was undertaken with the aim of explaining how natural and sexual selection act to maintain all three forms of skua in its populations. The results show that natural selection for pale is balanced by sexual selection for intermediate and dark. Models derived from Darwin's theories of female choice and sexual selection in monogamous birds fit the breeding data of the Arctic Skua. Darwibn's views on sexual selection are fully confirmed.

Skua and Penguin: Predator and Prey

Areas of barren rock and scree around the edge of Antarctica provide a breeding ground for two of the continent's most well-known species of bird: the south polar skua and the Adélie penguin. This book considers the relationship between these two species, taking as its study site Ross Island. Through detailed observations of the foraging ecology of the skua, the traditional view that skuas are totally dependent on penguin eggs and chicks for food is challenged. In addition, studies of the impact of skuas on penguin breeding and the extent to which the skua breeding cycle is functionally related to that of the penguin provide further evidence to suggest that the two species occur together independently as a consequence of limited breeding space, rather than as a result of a distinct predator-prey relationship.

Gulls :New Naturalist

There are more than 50 known species of gulls, and many of these are well-adapted to living in urban areas and in close proximity to humans. But there are also less familiar species to discover, which keep their distance from beachgoers. This long-overdue addition to the New Naturalist library explains the thorny issues of gull taxonomy and classification, then introduces readers to what it means to be a gull, physically and genetically. Chapters are divided by larger gull groups, and within these, distribution, lifecyles and behaviours are examined, as well as acclimation to the human world. Colour photography throughout offers ample opportunity to get a sense of the variation within the gull group, and makes this book a pleasure to look through.

The Gull Next Door: A Portrait of a Misunderstood Bird

From a distance, gulls are beautiful symbols of freedom over the oceanic wilderness. Up close, however, they can be loud, aggressive and even violent. Yet gulls fascinate birdwatchers, and seafarers regard them with respect and affection. The Gull Next Door explores the natural history of gulls and their complicated relationship with humans.
Marianne Taylor grew up in an English seaside town where gulls are ever present. Today, she is a passionate advocate for these underappreciated birds. In this book, Taylor looks at the different gull species and sheds light on all aspects of the lives of gulls―how they find food, raise families, socialize and migrate across sea, coastland and countryside. She discusses the herring gull, Britain's best-known and most persecuted gull species, whose numbers are declining at an alarming rate. She looks at gulls in legend, fiction and popular culture, and explains what we can do to protect gull populations around the world.

Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach

This unique photographic field guide to North America’s gulls provides a comparative approach to identification that concentrates on the size, structure, and basic plumage features of gulls―gone are the often-confusing array of plumage details found in traditional guides.
Featuring hundreds of colour photos throughout, Gulls Simplified illustrates the variations of gull plumages for a variety of ages, giving readers strong visual reference points for each species. Extensive captions accompany the photos, which include comparative photo arrays, digitized photo arrays for each age group, and numerous images of each species―a wealth of visual information at your fingertips. This one-of-a-kind guide includes detailed species accounts and a distribution map for each gull.

Gulls of the World: A Photographic Guide

A comprehensive photographic guide to the world's gull species With more than 50 gull species in the world, this family of seabirds poses some of the greatest field identification challenges of any bird group: age-related plumage changes, extensive variations within species, frequent hybridization, and complex distribution. Gulls of the World takes on these challenges and is the first book to provide a comprehensive look at these birds. Concise text emphasizes field identification, with in-depth discussion of variations as well as coverage of habitat, status, and distribution. Abundant photographs highlight identification criteria and, crucially, factor in age and subspecific field separation. Informative species accounts are accompanied by detailed colour range maps. Gulls of the World is the most authoritative photographic guide to this remarkable bird family. The first book to provide in-depth coverage of all the world's gull species More than 600 stunning colour photographs Concise text looks at variations, habitat, status, and distribution Informative species accounts and colour range maps

Gulls: A Guide to Identification

This second edition of Peter Grant's guide has been extensively revised and has been reset throughout. Importantly, a further eight species of gulls occurring on the west coasts of Canada and the USA have been added. The book now covers 31 species and has been increased in length from 280 to 352 pages. More than 280 new photographs have been added or substituted, bringing the total to 544, including 79 photographs for the eight North American additional species. The great increase in interest in gull identification since the publication of the first edition (and the author's series on that topic in British Birds) has helped bring much new information to light. As a result some revision was made to almost every text page and most of the identification drawings were improved in some way; in addition, changes were made to many of the distribution maps. These revisions and improvements were often quite minor, but others were substantial and important (see the author's Introduction).

The Herring Gull's World

New Naturalist Monograph No.9

• ASIN : B001HWVH5M
• Publisher : Collins; First Edition (1 Jan. 1953)

Niko Tinbergen: Hardcover

Signals for Survival :Lesser black-backed gull

Story of Lesser Black-backed gulls on Walney Island Lancashire UK.
This book, based on the film of the same title that was awarded the 1969 Italia prize for television documentaries, describes and interprets in simple, but scientifically accurate, terms the sign-language of a common seabird, the Lesser Black-backed Gull. It is liberally illustrated by Eric Ennion's water-colour sketches and professor Tinbergan's action photographs.
Hardback worth reading just for Ennion's illustrations.80pp.

The Black-headed Gull (Biological Monographs)

A 64 page paperback with the Black-headed Gull as the subject matter

• Publisher : AV-MEDIA (1 Jan. 1978)
• Language: : English
• Paperback : 64 pages
• ISBN-10 : 8757700346
• ISBN-13 : 978-8757700343

Flight Identification of European Seabirds

Seawatching can present identification difficulties to even the most experienced birdwatcher, and demands a specialised set of skills and strategies to deal with the challenges of bad weather and poor visibility. The rewards can be great; many species of seabird live exclusively at sea outside their breeding seasons, while many others undertake regular coastal migrations. At established 'watchpoints' around European coastlines, patient observation may reveal spectacular numbers of passing seabirds, while today the growing popularity of whale-watching and 'pelagic' boat excursions makes it possible to get closer to many offshore species. This unique field guide is indispensable to all birdwatchers who seawatch, whether from land or at sea, and will greatly enhance their experience..

RSPB Seabirds

Seabirds are the living links between land, air and sea. They enjoy a freedom that even humans, with all our technological assistance, can barely imagine. Many species travel mind-boggling distances across the length and breadth of our planet before returning to land to breed in large, deafening and confusingly crowded colonies. Yet within this commotion each mated pair forms a bond of extreme closeness and tenderness that survives separation each winter and may persist for decades.
The long and geologically varied coastline of the British Isles provides homes for internationally important numbers of breeding seabirds. Visiting their colonies is always unforgettable, whether they are cliff-faces packed with Guillemots, islands white-capped by clustered Gannets on their nests, flat beaches crowded with screaming Arctic Terns or seaside rooftops overlaid with a second townscape of nesting gulls. The changing fortunes of these seabird cities reveal to us the health of the vast, unseen but incredibly rich marine world that surrounds us.

The Seabird’s Cry

WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2018

WINNER OF THE JEFFERIES AWARD FOR NATURE WRITING 2017

The full story of seabirds from one of the greatest nature writers. The book looks at the pattern of their lives, their habitats, the threats they face and the passions they inspire – beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer.

Seabirds are master navigators, thriving in the most demanding environment on earth. In this masterly book, drawing on all the most recent research, Adam Nicolson follows them to the coasts and islands of Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and the Americas. Beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer, The Seabird’s Cry is a celebration of the wonders of the only creatures at home in the air, on land and on the sea. It also carries a warning: the number of seabirds has dropped by two-thirds since 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of a seabird colony will this century become little but a memory.

In Search of Ross's Gull

The initial discovery of Ross's Gull (Rhodostethia rosea) in the Canadian Arctic in July 1823, and subsequent early contacts with it were inextricably linked with, and incidental to, the great 19th Century expeditions to the Arctic in pursuit of the two major goals of the time- the attainment of the North Geographical Pole and the location of a more direct maritime trading route between Europe and China.
The species' association with the Arctic region, and with many of its early explorer heroes, including William Edward Parry, John and James Clark Ross (its discoverer), George De Long and Raymond Newcombe, Fridtjof Nansen, and Salomon Andree, together with the remoteness and, until very recently, the inaccessibility of its North-East Siberian breeding grounds, which were not discovered until 1905 by Sergei Buturlin, have endowed the bird with an aura probably unrivalled by any other species.
This book tells the fascinating story of these early encounters with this beautiful and enigmatic bird, together with many of more modern times, including those of the author during his 40-year odyssey of it, culminating in his solo trip to the Russian Arctic in 1990.

Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America

The standard text on the identification of the northern hemisphere's gulls, this book covers the plumage variation through age and subspecies of all 80 species in the region. With exhaustive coverage, detailed maps, and superb plates and photos, this book remains the definitive work on these birds, which represent the trickiest of all ID challenges.

Gulls: Of North America, Europe, and Asia

The gulls are a large family of seabirds, familiar and distinctive as a group, but one of the most challenging to separate at the species level, especially in their various stages of immature plumage. This guide offers the most comprehensive treatment ever published on the gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia. Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson treat a total of forty-three species--each depicted in considerable detail, with a full description of every plumage and racial variation. The text is complemented not only by superb colour paintings by Larsson, but also by 800 colour photographs.

Gulls of the Americas

A definitive overview of the thirty-six species of North and South American gulls offers a close-up look at the diverse plumages displayed by gulls as they mature, furnishing more than 1,100 full-colour photographs and detailed descriptions of each species and its behaviour, life cycle, migratory routes, habitat, and more.