A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated overview to the birds of Maine The first comprehensive overview of Maine’s incredibly rich birdlife in more than seven decades, Birds of Maine is a detailed account of all 464 species recorded in the Pine Tree State. It is also a thoroughly researched, accessible portrait of a region undergoing rapid changes, with southern birds pushing north, northern birds expanding south, and once-absent natives like Atlantic Puffins brought back by innovative conservation techniques pioneered in Maine. Written by the late Peter Vickery in cooperation with a team of leading ornithologists, this guide offers a detailed look at the state’s dynamic avifauna—from the Wild Turkey to the Arctic Tern—with information on migration patterns and timing, current status and changes in bird abundance and distribution, and how Maine's geography and shifting climate mold its birdlife. It delves into the conservation status for Maine's birds, as well as the state's unusually textured ornithological history, involving such famous names as John James Audubon and Theodore Roosevelt, and home-grown experts like Cordelia Stanwood and Ralph Palmer. Sidebars explore diverse topics, including the Old Sow whirlpool that draws multitudes of seabirds and the famed Monhegan Island, a mecca for migrant birds. Gorgeously illustrated with watercolors by Lars Jonsson and scores of line drawings by Barry Van Dusen, Birds of Maine is a remarkable guide that birders will rely on for decades to come. Copublished with the Nuttall Ornithological Club

This edited series has three principal goals. The first is to provide information in a relatively concise way for researchers needing an over view of specific disciplines. The second is to provide an update on specific schools of thought, bringing together ideas from colleagues whose works often appear in a variety of journals. And the third is to stimulate and suggest directions for new research. Volume 6 continues the tradition established by the previous editor and editorial board in providing new information, updating our understanding of specific dis ciplines, and stimulating new research. In the first chapter, Randall Breitwisch examines mortality patterns and sex ratios in monogamous birds. He argues that there are many more components to measuring parental investment than are often re alized; our knowledge is weak in several areas. Understanding the evo lution of mating systems depends on better distinguishing the different intensities of natural selection that operate on males and females. Greg ory Butcher and Sievert Rohwer develop a framework for assessing the role of colorfulness in birds. They propose several hypotheses to test and advocate evaluating more than one hypothesis at a time. Future work on the evolution of distinctive coloration and of sexual and age dimorphism must take these ideas into account.