The ecology of bird communities /

An authoritative, well-done, up-to-date summary of a complex subject. Volume 1 contains a three-chapter section dealing with definitions, history, the logical basis for community ecology, and an essay on methodology. The second part of Volume 1 (11 chapters) describes patterns of avian communities and includes treatments of community assemblies, numbers of birds and species, niches and guilds, morphological aspects of community ecology, geographic and habitat distributions of species, uses of resources, relationships of densities and niche patterns, convergences of species, and bioenergetics. The second volume has three chapters on competition, one on temporal variations, and another on spatial patchiness patterns in avian communities. The volume ends with comments on future areas of study. More than an introductory summary, less than a complete review of the literature, these volumes are easy to read and present the subject well. Graduate level. S. W. Harris Humboldt State University