By Alexander Frank Skutch, Dana Gardner
ISBN-10: 0877456747
ISBN-13: 9780877456742
In Helpers at Birds' Nests, popular naturalist and ornithologist Alexander Skutch presents shiny, exact bills of a outstanding element of chook behavior--the reduction that one fowl offers one other who's neither its mate nor its based younger and who might even belong to another species. In swish, transparent prose, Skutch makes available to beginner bird-watchers examples of cooperation in species as far-flung because the little rifleman of latest Zealand, the Laysan albatross within the mid Pacific, and the neotropical birds of Skutch's personal Valley of El basic in Costa Rica. Skutch describes the cooperative habit of greater than fifty households of birds. each one relations is brought through a quick caricature of its distribution and notable positive aspects, via intimate, nontechnical bills of the worthy behaviors which were so much rigorously studied. Skutch considers the importance of useful birds and discusses the theoretical points of cooperative breeding, its evolution, kinfolk choice, altruism, and demography. First chanced on by means of the writer greater than part a century in the past, cooperative breeding has develop into more and more studied by means of expert ornithologists. during this accelerated variation, famous behaviorist Stephen Emlen credit Skutch's passionate observations of birds with selling clinical curiosity in avian habit. Emlen bargains readers a precis of the advances made within the box prior to now ten years and areas Skutch's paintings within the context of up to date ornithological study.
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Extra info for Helpers at birds' nests: a worldwide survey of cooperative breeding and related behavior
Sample text
The book is organized as a systematic survey, with chapters devoted to each taxonomic family for which cooperative breeding has been reported. Delightfully readable, in the relaxed, engaging style for which Skutch is well known, each species account weaves together information about habitat and nesting biology in a way that makes the helping behaviors come alive on the page. The verbal portraits are complemented by attractive line drawings from Skutch's long-term illustrator, Dana Gardner. This book can serve as an excellent Page xii introduction for the enthusiastic amateur who wants an overview of the types of cooperative behaviors exhibited by birds.
In nonreproductive activities A. Intraspecific helpers B. Interspecific helpers The examples under both A and B that are at present available are so few that no further subdivision seems advisable. When parents and their assistants are integrated into coherent, harmonious, fairly stable social groups that persist throughout the year, the situation may be designated advanced cooperative breeding. Not all nesting pairs of species properly called cooperative breeders have helpers; those nesting for the first time and those that have nested unsuccessfully or have lost all their fledged young are most likely to be without assistants, who are usually, but by no means always, attached to their own parents; but in all cooperative breeders a substantial proportion of nesting pairs, commonly a third or more, have at least one helper.
It frequently oversteps the limits of species, giving rise to interspecific helping. Although primarily directed to the nourishment of young, feeding has become important in courtship and maintenance of the pair bond in many species; usually the male offers food to his mate, but sometimes she returns the courtesy. By feeding the incubating female, mated males and often, too, their helpers enable her to sit more constantly or even continuously. This is the last manifestation of parental behavior to persist in parasitic birds.
Helpers at birds' nests: a worldwide survey of cooperative breeding and related behavior by Alexander Frank Skutch, Dana Gardner
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