Review Of "The Private Lives Of Birds: A Scientist Reveals The Intricacies Of Avian Social Life" By B. Stutchbury

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

11-1-2010

Published In

Choice

Abstract

The social behavior of birds is a hot topic. (A simple Google search retrieved more than a million entries.) Here, biologist Stutchbury (York Univ., Canada; coauthor with E. S. Morton, Behavioral Ecology of Tropical Birds, CH, Jan'02, 39-2801) concentrates on experimental studies in the field rather than the laboratory, and she salts her text with enough personal anecdotes to hold the undergraduate or general reader's interest. The topics include most aspects of reproductive behavior: mating systems, mate fidelity, birdsong, parental investment, territory, and communal nesting along with a fascinating digression into migration. The strength of the book is Stutchbury's efforts to explain actual experiments (many her own) and the ways they shed light on natters such as conservation. Occasionally, the author packs in too many examples for a lay reader, and one might wish for a few more cautions that birds and humans are really quite different cognitively. But overall, this work strikes a good balance between scientific and popular writing. Data are scant; the books has only a few graphs or tables. The volume provides references grouped by chapter and a good index and will be useful as supplemental reading for an undergraduate course in ornithology or animal behavior. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.

Comments

This work is freely available courtesy of Choice Reviews. The review has been reproduced in full in the abstract field.

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