The Ecology of Migrant Birds

Incorporating new information on migratory birds, most gathered within the past decade, this comprehensive synthesis is the first book to explore migration principally from the perspective of the tropical, or nonbreeding, portion of the migrant life cycle.This book is devoted to key topics (habitat, resource use, migrants as members of tropical communities, migration, migrant evolution, Old World versus New World migration systems, migrant population change, and conservation). . . . The author's neotropical perspective makes this book different than others on migrant birds, and it highlights clearly the significant gaps in our knowledge of the ecology of migrants on their winter ranges. (Science)

Rappole provides us with both an astute summary of the past and a research blueprint for the future. He does an outstanding job of carefully weighing the rigor of alternative hypotheses and then steering the reader to an understanding of the specific research questions that must be addressed if we are to expand our understanding of migrant biology. (Ecology)

Few researchers have enjoyed more years of specific study on migrant bird ecology than John Rappole. His book, The Ecology of Migrant Birds, provides an in-depth overview of the New World's temperate-zone breeding birds that migrant to and winter in the neotropics. . . . While detailed in documentation, this book is nevertheless quite readable, for scientist or layman. (Trends In Ecology & Evolution)John H. Rappole is the research coordinator at the Conservation and Research Center of the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park.A comprehensive synthesis that explores bird migration principally from the perspective of the tropical, or nonbreeding, portion of the migrant life cycle.