Vagrancy in Birds

Alexander Lees and James Gilroy

What a stunning book !

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

Avian vagrancy is a phenomenon that has fascinated natural historians for centuries. From Victorian collectors willing to spend fortunes on a rare specimen, to todays high-octane bird-chasing twitchers, the enigma of vagrancy has become a lifelong obsession for countless ornithologists worldwide.

This book 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? The book 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. 384 pages.

 Hardback £40.00 £35.99