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People have been long-fascinated with birds, and their scientific study has been central to advances in evolution, animal behavior, biogeography, population dynamics, and community ecology. Research questions in these fields have been driven in part by innovations in technology. Ornithologists even 20 years ago could scarcely imagine the detail and precision with which we can now monitor bird populations on a global scale, whether through digital tools like eBird, indirectly through remote sensing satellites, or at closer range via drones.
Highlighting these advances,
New Perspectives in Ornithology brings together leading and rising professionals across ornithology, spanning behavior and ecology to genomics and conservation. Organized thematically into five sections - ecology, evolution, behavior, citizen science, and conservation - the volume reflects the major swaths of modern ornithology.
Its contributions offer diverse perspectives on some of the most pressing challenges facing birds today, including climate change, habitat loss, and effects of urbanization.
New Perspectives in Ornithology also showcases extraordinary and inspiring new insights into how birds work, their amazing colors and songs, movements around the globe, and their deep-time evolution.
Approachable and conversational in style, yet scientifically rigorous, this volume is essential reading for graduate students, early career researchers, and senior academics, and anyone else who will need to be aware of key approaches and conceptual domains in ornithology today.
List of contents
- 1. Introduction
- Ecology
- 2. Commentary
- 3. Uncovering Factors Limiting Populations of Migratory Birds across the Annual Cycle
- 4. The Impact of Movement Ecology on Ornithology
- 5. Bird Invasions in a Humanizing World
- Evolution
- 6. Commentary
- 7. Advances in the Avian Tree of life and Biogeography in the 21st Century
- 8. The Origin and Early Evolution of Birds
- 9. Speciation and Adaptation in Birds
- 10. Avian Diversity and Patterns of Diversification in South America
- 11. Natural History Collections for 21st Century Ornithology
- Behavior
- 12. Commentary
- 13. Social Behaviour in Birds
- 14. Birdsong: Established truths, advances, and an expanded view
- 15. New Frontiers in Avian Color Research
- 16. Bird Migration in the Age of Rapid Technological Advance and Global Change
- Databases and Citizen Science
- 17. Commentary
- 18. Recent Advances in Avian Occurrence and Movement Databases
- 19. Participatory Science in the Field of Ornithology
- 20. Expanding the Scope of Ornithology by Engaging Diverse Communities
- Conservation and Management
- 21. Commentary
- 22. Bird Conservation Geography
- 23. Bird Conservation in the Neotropics: Gaps and challenges in the face of Anthropocene threats
- 24. The Introduction, Management and Utilization of Tropically Adapted Chickens in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 25. Trends in Bird Conservation in Africa
- 26. Does Climate Change Alter How We Should Do Bird Conservation
About the author
Scott V. Edwards is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and Curator of Ornithology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Prof. Edwards is an evolutionary biologist, with diverse interests in the evolution of birds and how they respond to a changing planet. Edwards has served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and other scientific societies and serves on the Advisory Boards of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the Adventure Cycling Association. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
J. Michael Reed is a Professor of Biology at Tufts University. People in Prof. Reed's lab work on a variety of problems related to the distribution and persistence of species on human-altered landscapes, mostly with birds. Reed is particularly interested in threatened and endangered species on islands, birds
in coupled human-natural ecosystems such as working forests and wetlands, and in the extinction risk of small, isolated populations. He received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1988, working on extinction risk of an endangered bird species. His recent research focuses on birds in Maine forests and in the Mojave Desert.
