How birds fly
David Goodnow
92 pages

This is a lavishly illustrated book about bird flight. Less detailed than the Videler book (below), it is more accessable.

The book is more of an appreciation of birds than an explanation.  The pictures are a good way of helping you look at real birds in flight and gaining an insight into their actions.

LCCN:  92233981
Author: Goodnow, David.
Main Title: How birds fly / David Goodnow ; photographs by the author ; illustrations by Robert J. Savannah.
Edition Information: 1st ed.
Published: Columbia, Md. : Periwinkle Books, c1992.
Description: vii, 92 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.
ISBN: 0963424408
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Birds--Flight.
Birds--Flight--Pictorial works.

Avian flight
John J. Videler.
285 pages

This book has been written by someone who has studied bird flight all his life.

The publisher's blurb and the table of contents pretty well tells it all.

It is a very readable, if detailed, book.

LCCN:  2005281951
Author: Videler, John J.
Main Title: Avian flight / John J. Videler.
Published: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.
Description: xv, 258 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN: 0198566034 (cased)
UPC/EAN: 9780198566038
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Birds--Flight.
Series: Oxford ornithology series ; 14

Publishers Notes: 

Bird flight has always intrigued mankind. This book provides an up to date account of our existing knowledge on the subject, as well as offering new insights and challenging some established views.

A brief history of the science of flight introduces the basic physical principles governing aerial locomotion. A treatment of flight-related functional morphology concentrates on the difference in shape of the arm and hand part of the wings, on the structure and function of tails, and on the shape
of the body. The anatomy and mechanical properties of feathers receive special attention. Aerodynamic principles used by birds are explained in theory by simply applying Newton's laws, and in practice by showing the direction and velocity of the attached flow around an arm wing cross section and of
the leading edge vortex flow above a hand wing. The Archaeopteryx fossils remain crucial in our understanding of the evolution of bird flight despite the recent discovery of a range of well-preserved ancient birds.

A novel insight into the interactions between wings and air challenges established theories relating to the origin of bird flight. Take-off, flapping flight, gliding and landing are the basic ingredients of bird flight, and birds use a variety of flight styles from hovering to soaring. Flight
muscles consisting of mosaics of specialized fibers are the engines that generate the force required to keep the wings and tail in the gliding configuration and perform work during flapping motion.  The energy required to fly can be estimated or measured directly, and a comparison of empirical
results provides insights into the trend in metabolic costs of flight of birds varying in shape and mass from hummingbirds to albatrosses.



Introduction

1. Acquisition of knowledge
2. Aerodynamic principles
3. Feathers for flight
4. Functional morphology of flight apparatus
5. Evolution of avian flight
6. Kinematics and performance
7. Dynamics of flapping and gliding flight
8. The metabolic cost of flight
9. Comparing the metabolic cost of flight

John J Videler holds two academic positions, Professor of Evolutionary Mechanics at Leiden University, and Professor of Marine Zoology at Groningen University, The Netherlands.

Birdflight as the basis of aviation
Otto Lilienthal, 1848-1896.
151 pages

This is a reprint of a nineteenth century book.

It has an interesting forward. Otto Lilienthal spent some time in Australia.

There are a number of tables and designs presented.

LCCN:  99074074
Author: Lilienthal, Otto, 1848-1896.
Main Title: Birdflight as the basis of aviation : a contribution
towards a system of aviation, compiled from the results of
numerous experiments made by O. and G. Lilienthal Otto
Lilienthal ; with a biographical introduction and addendum by
Gustav Lilienthal ... translated from the second edition by A.
W. Isenthal.
Edition Information: Markowski ed.
Published: Hummelstown, PA : Markowski International Pub., c2001.
Description: xxiv, 151 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
ISBN: 0938716581
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Flight.
Wings.
Aeronautics.