The Life of Birds those birds whose sustenance comes from flesh and their methods of hunting. In New Zealand, Attenborough observes keas, parrots that do not eat meat exclusively, raiding a shearwater's burrow for a chick. However, it is the dedicated birds of prey, such as owls, buzzards, eagles, falcons and vultures, to which much of the programme is devoted. In order to spot and pursue their victims, senses of sight and hearing are very acute. Vultures are the exception, in that they eat what others have left, and once a carcass is found, so many birds descend on it that the carrion seems
Human uses of birds birds, while John James Audubon's enormous and impressive images of birds in his 1827–1838 "Birds of America" are among the most admired by art critics and by collectors: early editions fetch among the highest prices paid for any printed books. The ornithologist John Gould's bird illustrations, in books such as "A Century of Birds hitherto unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains" (1830–1833) with 80 plates, and his 7-volume "The Birds of Australia" (1840–1848) with 600 plates, related directly to his research, were both beautiful and scientifically useful. Birds are popular characters in children's books, which are often handsomely illustrated. Beatrix Potter's