Additional information
by Ron House (Author), Gitie House (Author)
An invaluable quick start guide on how to communicate with backyard birds to enhance mutual understanding and friendship. Over 100 colour images. Take your love for birds further than just watching and admiring them from a distance. Learn how to communicate with them in your own language and expand your community and connection with these amazing creatures around you. When you put out food and water for your local birds, it might seem like a one-way street; but these are only the means for developing trust and creating a social forum. Once they know you care, they think of you as a member of their extended family, they look out for you, protect you, and go to great lengths within their own communities to incorporate your wishes. It is possible to overcome the communication barrier between ourselves and other species, and your avian friends will share with you all kinds of information about their lives and families. This book explains the communication techniques that the authors have learned from their experiences with their bird friends.
Author Biography
Gitie and Ron have been talking to the wild birds that live in the open Australian bush in Southern Queensland for over twelve years. The birds range from the big and aggressive such as crows to the small and vulnerable like thornbills. Six of the species that have formed long term friendships are considered to be amongst the top eight most aggressive birds in the country. Chief amongst them are the magpies, who are well known for attacking humans, particularly during breeding season. Yet these birds have taken Gitie and Ron to their nests, and brought their young to them, even leaving their chicks behind with their human baby-sitters, while they go off bug-hunting. Their friendship with the birds that live freely in the wild has given Ron and Gitie a special insight into bird culture, their inner natures and their emotional and social intelligence. They know over eighty wild birds by name. The birds have shown them how they communicate with each other in their families, their groups and the wider bird communities involving other species, including how they remember relationships, pass messages, negotiate territories, offer services, cooperate and collaborate with each other as well as with other animals. Above all they have shown their eagerness in forming friendships with those humans who are prepared to communicate with them and so become part of an integrated extended family and network.
