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Birds show bewildering diversity in their life histories, mating systems and risk of extinction, and offer a unique opportunity for investigating many classic problems in natural and sexual selection because they are exceptionally well-studied in the wild. By employing phylogenetic comparative methods and a database of up to 3000 species, the authors identify the ecological and evolutionary basis of many of these intriguing questions. This is the most comprehensive reappraisal of avian diversity since David Lack's classic Ecological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds. It is also the most extensive application of modern comparative methods yet undertaken.
`This book contains a wealth of new analyses, points out intriguing unsolved questions, and for that reason is highly appropriate for a series aimed at senior graduate students and above....I believe this book may well act as a catalyst for an explosion of studies in the area of comparative evolutionary ecology.' Professor Tim Birkhead, University of Sheffield, England
'The authors have written a wonderfully stimulating book which, like Lack's original volume, is a landmark in bird biology and should be read by all ornithologists.' IBIS