ABSTRACT
Birds are one group of terrestrial vertebrates that are noticed by urbanites when they are overabundant and when they are missing. This chapter focuses on a contradiction of how birds contribute to our quality of life and how our activities, accidental or by design, promote or preclude the existence an animal from which we derive so much pleasure and many benefits. It provides some of the essential information about bird taxonomy, natural history, and distribution nationally, by state, and in urban communities. The taxonomic characteristics of birds are a staggering array of extreme variations in anatomical and physiological designs. These variations in bird anatomical designs are evident in sizes, colors, beaks, body shapes, wings, feathers, feet, syringes, and internal organs. Physiological variations in avian taxonomic groups provide the adaptations required to live in virtually every habitat, for example, terrestrial versus water; climate, for example, tropical rainforest versus desert; and geographic region of the world.
