Avian Ecology and Conservation in an Urbanizing World

One of the most striking and persistent ways humans dominate Earth is by changing land-cover as we settle a region. Much of our ecological understanding about this process comes from studies of birds, yet the existing literature is scattered, mostly decades old, and rarely synthesized or standardized. The twenty-seven contributions authored by leaders in the fields of avian and urban ecology present a unique summary of current research on birds in settled environments ranging from wildlands to exurban, rural to urban. Ecologists, land managers, wildlife managers, evolutionary ecologists, urban planners, landscape architects, and conservation biologists will find our information useful because we address the conservation and evolutionary implications of urban life from an ecological and planning perspective. Graduate students in these fields also will find the volume to be a useful summary and synthesis of current research, extant literature, and prescriptions for future work. All interested in human-driven land-cover changes will benefit from a perusal of this book because we present high altitude photographs of each study area.

`Avian Ecology in an Urbanizing World is a useful compilation of research on birds in human-dominated landscapes, and belongs ... in the library of any institution intereested in stydying or managing urban systems. It also highlights how much more we need to learn in order to address the impacts on birds of the suite of human activities that comprise urbanization. It is therefore a good point of departure for students embarking on new research in urban areas.' Ecology, 83:9 (2002)