Book excerpt: Written by fourteen of the world's outstanding authorities on ornithology, illustrated with more than 500 original portraits, 270 line drawings, and 167 maps and diagrams, The World Atlas of Birds offers a fresh look at what birds are, how they live, and what lies behind their extraordinary success in coming to terms with virtually every habitat available to our planet, from polar regions to equatorial rainforests, mountaintops to the open sea. The World Atlas of Birds selects more than 500 species of birds and examines them in depth, region by region, choosing each one to illustrate a particular facet of bird life – a hunting technique or physical specialization, courtship behavior or feeding habit. More than fifty boxed topics look at unusual aspects of bird behavior such as techniques of nest building, the relationship between adult and young, and the strange links that can exist between birds and other animals. In addition, the introductory chapter probes such general subjects as evolution, physiology, flight, and the mystery of migration; a glossary and catalog of scientific and common names is preceded by a unique section containing a full descriptive classification explaining the relationships and characteristics of the world's 155 bird families; and a complete index to the text and illustrations concludes the book.