Ornithology: An Ecological Approach

This is a textbook of ornithology with an ecological approach, as the author, who has published on bird ecology since the 1970s, remarks. Structure and function are the subjects of three of the 13 chapters; eight chapters treat speciation, diversity, systematics, adaptations to extreme environments, migration, foraging, and reproductive behavioral ecology. A final chapter, on economic and cultural values of birds, cites causes of extinction risk and the numbers of species at risk, although it does not refer to anthropogenic climate change. The text is enlivened by hand-lettered diagrams and color paintings of birds by the author’s daughter that are stylistically distinctive and generally accurate.