Birds of two worlds: the ecology and evolution of migration

Abstract

There is an audience for a new book on bird migration, one that synthesizes all the recent information on where birds go and how they get there. This symposium volume is not that book. The many authors are not interested in these questions but in why birds migrate and how this came to be. The result of a conference held in March 2002, this work offers breadth of coverage that is well above average for symposia; it includes sections on evolution, adaptation, and biogeography, as well as three chapters on ecology. Conservation issues, covered in earlier symposia on this topic, are not specifically addressed. The editors have produced a readable, interesting book. As with all symposium volumes, however, many of the 33 chapters are now somewhat out of date. The authors vary in their writing styles and scope of review, and thus cannot give a unified view of the subject. There are relatively few figures and no photographs; the index is extensive but offers few cross-references between chapters. This book will be of most use to graduate and professional institutions and those undergraduate institutions with an interest in the ecology and evolution of birds. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.