Nomadic Desert Birds

Name: Nomadic Desert Birds
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ISBN: 9783540403937

Adaptations of Desert Organisms

By: W. Richard J. Dean

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Hardcover Published: 9th December 2003
ISBN: 9783540403937
Number Of Pages: 185

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My interest in the behaviour and movements of birds of arid and semi-arid ecosystems began when my wife, Sue Milton, and I were Roy Siegfried, Director, at that time, of the Percy approached by Prof. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, to set up a project to investigate granivory in the South African Karoo. Sue and I spent some time finding a suitable study site, setting up accommodations and an automatic weather station at Tierberg, in the southern Karoo near the village of Prince Albert, and planning projects. Among our first projects was a transect where we noted plant phe nology, measured seed densities on the soil surface, counted birds, observed ant activity, measured soil surface temperatures and col lected whatever climate data we could at 40 sites along a 200-km oval route. Along the way, we became interested in the marked presence and absence of birds at certain sites - abundant birds one day, and very few birds at the same site a month later. Subsequent counts along fixed transects through shrublands confirmed that a number of bird species were highly nomadic over short and long distances, locally and regionally, leading to speculation on how widespread these movements were in the arid ecosystems of the world.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews:

"This book is a very useful review of an apparantly poorly-researched topic." (Ostrich)

"Writing a book on this subject would present a challenge to anyone, for desert birds are some of the least well studied ... . The main strength of this book is that it pulls together much scattered information from around the world on the movement patterns and behaviour of nomadic desert birds ... . I believe the author has done a good job. ... This book will, I hope, help to stimulate more study of bird movement patterns in arid environments." (I. Newton, ibis, Vol. 148, 2006)

"In this volume Richard Dean examines how birds, as part of their survival strategies, move nomadically within or between arid and semi-arid regions to find resource-rich patches. ... Comprehensive lists of bird families occurring in the arid zones of the world ... are included as appendices to the book. A 17 page reference list provides the reader with more than enough scope to read further about this fascinating topic ... . This book is a very useful review of an apparently poorly researched topic." (Dieter Oschadleus, Ostrich - Journal of African Ornithology, Vol. 76 (1-2), 2005)

Introduction	p. 1
Arid and Semi-Arid Regions	p. 5
The Avifauna of Deserts and Semi-Deserts	p. 5
Migrations and Movements of Desert Birds	p. 17
Movements in Desert and Semi-Desert Avifaunas: An Overview	p. 20
Migrants in Arid Ecosystems	p. 27
Residents in Arid Ecosystems	p. 29
How Sedentary Are "Resident" Birds?	p. 31
Conclusions	p. 35
The Nomadic Avifauna	p. 37
The Influence of Rainfall and Temperature on Movements in Birds	p. 37
Predictability of Movements by Non-migratory Birds in Arid Ecosystems	p. 43
Southern Africa	p. 51
North Africa	p. 53
Asia	p. 55
North America	p. 59
South America	p. 61
Australia	p. 66
Phylogeny of Nomadic Birds	p. 75
Conclusions	p. 78
Habitats and Densities of Nomadic Birds	p. 81
Habitats	p. 81
Patchiness in Time and Space	p. 92
Densities of Nomadic Birds	p. 97
Conclusions	p. 99
Food and Foraging	p. 101
Food of Nomadic Birds	p. 101
Foraging Behaviour	p. 118
Conclusions	p. 120
Reproduction, Moult and Mortality	p. 123
Nest Sites in Nomadic Birds	p. 124
A Case Study: Nest Site Selection in Wattled Starlings Creatophora cinerea, a Nomadic Insectivore	p. 128
Nest Construction and the Importance of Nest Materials as Indicators of Resources for Breeding	p. 130
Breeding Seasons	p. 132
Clutch Sizes and Nestling Periods in Arid and Semi-Arid South Africa	p. 134
Breeding Success	p. 138
Moult	p. 140
Conclusions	p. 142
The Conservation of Nomadic Desert Birds	p. 145
Appendix	p. 149
References	p. 159
Subject Index	p. 177
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9783540403937
ISBN-10: 3540403930
Series: Adaptations of Desert Organisms
Audience: General
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 185
Published: 9th December 2003
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg Gmbh & Co. Kg
Country of Publication: DE
Dimensions (cm): 23.39 x 15.6 x 1.27
Weight (kg): 0.46