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Contents:

1 - Introduction; 2 - Bird Species and their relationships; 3 - Species formation; 4 - Species numbers; 5 - Continental birds: biogeographical regions; 6 - Island birds: general features; 7 - Island birds: losses and gains; 8 - Seabirds; 9 - Glacial climates in northern regions: extinctions and distributional changes; 10 - Glacial cycles in northern regions: differentiation and speciation; 11 - Dry-wet cycles in tropical regions; 12 - Disjunct ranges;; 13 - Bird distribution patterns; 14 - Limitation of geographical ranges; 15 - Recent range changes; 16 - Crossing barriers; 17 - Dispersal; 18 - Migration biogeography; 19 - Speciation and biogeography - a synthesis.

Review:

Birds continue to be of major interest to ecologists at all levels. Television series dealing with birds tend to attract large audiences and the RSPB remains one of the largest organisations of its type in the world. In education, the aim is to be able to harness this interest and yet move beyond simple identification to look at more complex issues. Books in this category tend to be less common which makes this contribution to the literature all the more welcome.

The aim of this book is to provide a detailed review of the distribution of bird species in terms of patterns, evolution/speciation and the processes controlling these. After the introduction, which questions the concept of species and provides an overview of bird and landmass evolution through geological time, the remaining work is divided into six parts. Part one deals with the evolution and diversity of birds. The three chapters making up this part are fairly theoretical in character but essential for the material that follows. Firstly, there is consideration of the idea of 'species' what to include/exclude and where to draw the line. There's also a critical overview of classifications. The second chapter looks at species formation and the various possibilities that can be seen as well as the times taken for species to become differentiated and the impact of convergent evolution on species differentiation. The final chapter picks its way through the problems of species numbers. Part two provides an overview of the main distributional patterns. The focus chosen is not the usual realms e.g. Palaearctic, Afrotropical etc. but by geographical units: continents, islands (two chapters for general features and losses/gains) and seabirds. Each of the usual zoogeographical units is placed in one of these chapters. This allows us to see the comparisons between otherwise geographically separated avifauna. The chapter on seabirds is particularly useful in that it ignores conventional ecology that keeps with terrestrial or marine systems: the overlap helps us understand distribution patterns in a broader sense. Part three looks at the impact produced by past climate changes. Chapters focus on the last ice age, dry-wet cycles in tropical areas and disjunct ranges. Again, as with part 2, there's a grouping of ideas not normally seen together which adds to our overall understanding. Up to this point the reader has seen the development and spread of species. Part four shows that its not just spread: barriers can be major influences on bird populations. The first aspect to consider is the mapping of ranges. Here, the obvious problems of range diagrams in identification books are made clear and even atlases have their limitations. The next chapter deals with the way ranges can be limited: climate, topography and habitat are major influences here. Recent range changes are the next topic. Although human impact has reduced bird species, this chapter also notes range changes (including increases) due to the same human activity (as we all know, some bird species do very well out of human habitation). Finally in this part there's a discussion about crossing these barriers and what make a successful 'invader' of new areas. Part five looks at bird movements. The first topic is dispersal: not the same as range expansion but the movement of individuals from birth, during breeding and in longer term migrations around their usual 'territories'. The second and final chapter in this part discusses the global migration patterns of some species and the impact this has on distribution numbers and the resulting patterns. Part six consists of a final chapter synthesising the main aspects highlighted during the course of the text. A glossary, large bibliography and index (subject and species) completes the text.

This is a most interesting text. The primary focus is birds but the mechanisms e.g. climate, geography etc. are also common to other groups of plants and animals. In this case the quality of writing and explanation are such that it makes these topics far easier to understand than in some other texts written for this part of the market. Overall, one of the main advantages of the book is its accessibility. Difficult concepts are explained very clearly. There's a mass of data which gives clear examples of the topic in hand. The whole text makes a complex area easier for the tyro for whom this text is aimed. This is an excellent text well the shelf space for either bird or biogeographical studies.