Extinct Birds

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Publishing, Mar 19, 2012 - Nature - 544 pages
This is the first comprehensive review of the hundreds of bird species
that have become extinct over the last 1,000 years of habitat
degradation, over-hunting and rat introduction. Covering both familiar
extinct birds and more obscure species, some known from just one
specimen or from traveller's tales, the book also looks at hundreds of
species from the subfossil record - birds that disappeared without ever
being recorded. Julian Hume and Michael Walters recreate these lost
birds in stunning detail, bringing together an up to date review of the
literature for every species. From Great Auks, Carolina Parakeets and
Dodos to the amazing yet completely vanished bird radiations of Hawaii
and New Zealand, via rafts of extinctions in the Pacific and elsewhere,
this book is both a sumptuous reference and a terrifying reminder of
humanity's impact on birds.



A direct replacement for Greenway's seminal 1958 title Extinct and Vanishing Birds, this book will be the standard reference on the subject for generations to come.

About the author (2012)

Julian P. Hume initially trained as an artist before turning to science, completing his doctorate in avian palaeontology on the extinct birds of the Mascarene Islands. Julian has travelled extensively, especially to oceanic islands, and has a long illustrative and scientific publication record. He is renowned for his artistic reconstructions of extinct species in their natural habitats.

A co-author of the critically acclaimed Lost Land of the Dodo and the seminal Extinct Birds, Julian is presently a research fellow at the Natural History Museum, London and Tring, as well as a professional artist.

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