Function and Evolution (Volume 2) (Bird Coloration) - Hardcover

The aim of Bird Coloration is to provide a flavour of the extent to which birds have exploited the sun's rays...These two volumes also delve deeper into the disparate ways in which bird colours are produced, what purpose they perform, their effect on communities in general, and finally, how they got here in the first place--their evolution...The reference lists alone are priceless...Bird Coloration will appeal to students of, and researchers in, evolution in general, because the devices that cause colour are often considered as phenotypes. Those interested in ecology, animal behaviour and vision studies will benefit, too...And if further incentive is needed to buy these books, just flick through the colour sections. -- Andrew R. Parker Times Literary Supplement The two volumes of Bird Coloration provide an excellent up-to-date overview of the topic...Bird coloration is a huge topic and anyone organizing an overview should be heartily congratulated. -- Andrew T. D. Bennett Nature 20070111

In this companion volume to Bird Coloration: Volume 1, Mechanisms and Measurements, Geoffrey E. Hill and Kevin J. McGraw have assembled some of the world's leading experts in the function and evolution of bird coloration to contribute to a long-overdue synthesis of a burgeoning field of inquiry. In Volume 2, the authors turn from the problem of how birds see and produce color and how researchers measure it, to what is the function of the colorful displays of birds and what are the factors that shape the evolution of color signals. The contributors to this volume begin by examining the function of coloration in a variety of contexts from mate choice, to social signaling, to individual recognition, synthesizing a vast amount of recent findings by researchers around the world. The volume and the series conclude with chapters that consider coloration from an explicitly evolutionary perspective, examining selective pressures that have led to the evolution of colors and patterns on body and plumage. These functional and evolutionary studies build from research on mechanisms of production and controls of expression, covered in the previous volume, bringing the study of color full circle. This sumptuously illustrated book will be essential reading for biologists studying animal coloration, but it will also be treasured by anyone curious about why birds are colorful and how they got that way.