The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers
Enter ancient lands of wind and waves where the planet's greatest flyers battle for survival.
As the only creatures at home on land, at sea, and in the air, seabirds have evolved to thrive in the most demanding environment on Earth. In The Seabird's Cry, Adam Nicolson travels ocean paths, fusing traditional knowledge with astonishing facts science has recently learned about these creatures: the way their bodies actually work, their dazzling navigational skills, their ability to smell their way to fish or home and to understand the discipline of the winds upon which they depend.
Award-Winning Nature Writing
This book is a paean to the beauty of life on the wing, combining scientific discovery with lyrical prose. Nicolson, a New York Times bestselling author who has won the Somerset Maugham Award, W. H. Heinemann Award, and Ondaatje Prize, brings decades of expertise to this exploration of seabird biology and behavior.
Conservation and Crisis
Even as we are coming to understand the seabirds, a global tragedy is unfolding. Their numbers are in freefall, dropping by nearly 70 percent in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than in 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean, and there is a danger that the hundred-million-year-old cries of a seabird colony, rolling around in the bays and headlands of high latitudes, will this century become but a memory.
Product Details
This paperback edition from Picador USA combines accessible science writing with environmental awareness, making it suitable for nature enthusiasts, birdwatchers, and readers interested in marine biology and conservation. The book examines how seabirds navigate vast ocean distances, their sensory capabilities, and the ecological pressures threatening their survival.
