Vagrancy in Birds

About this book

The first comprehensive coverage of a subject that has fascinated natural historians for centuries.

Avian vagrancy, the appearance of birds outside their normal home range, is a phenomenon that has fascinated natural historians for centuries. From Victorian collectors willing to spend fortunes on a rare specimen, to today's high-octane bird-chasing 'twitchers', the enigma of vagrancy has become a lifelong obsession for countless ornithologists worldwide. Vagrancy in Birds explores both pattern and process in avian vagrancy, drawing on recent research to answer a suite of fundamental questions concerning the occurrence of rare birds: What causes vagrancy? Why do some places attract so many vagrant birds? Why are some species more predisposed to long-range vagrancy than others? Vagrancy in Birds synthesizes everything that is known about the subject, and draw together different lines of evidence to make the case for vagrancy as a biological phenomenon with important implications for avian ecology and evolution.

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