Table of Contents

List of colour plates
List of abbreviations
Plan of the book
Diagrams of bird topography
Map showing some locations mentioned in the text
Boundaries of the regional maps used in the species accounts of Chapter 8
PART I General chapters
1: The bowerbirds--an introduction
2: Systematics and biogeography
3: Ecological cycles, foraging, and other behaviour
4: Morphology, demography, bower sites, structures, and their significance
5: Bower site acquisition, fidelity, attendance, and courtship displays
6: Breeding biology and parental care
7: Evolution of mating systems and sexual selection
PART II Family, genus, and species accounts
8: Family PTILONORHYNCHIDAE 20 species in 8 genera
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Clifford Frith is the author of a highly-respected companion volume in the Bird Families of the World series, The Birds of Paradise. Clifford's early ornithological positions included the The Natural History Museum, London, and the Royal Society of London Research Station, Aldabra Atoll, Indian Ocean. He obtained his PhD at Griffith University, Brisbane, for evolutionary studies of bowerbirds and birds of paradise. Dawn Frith obtained her PhD, in littoral
zone marine biology, at London University and lectured in zoology before meeting Clifford on Aldabra Atoll, where she studied insects. Both Cliff and Dawn are private ornithologists and self-employed natural
history authors, photographers, and publishers. They have worked on tropical Australasian birds, as well as various other avian, other vertebrate, and invertebrate, groups, and mangrove ecology, in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and tropical Pacific. They are Honorary Research Fellows of the Queensland Museum and joint recipients of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union's D. L. Serventy Medal for contributions to ornithology.

Reviews

For the time being, this is the definitive account of bowerbird biology, but it will be a fitting tribute to the Frith's ability to inspire future generations of bowerbird biologists if their excellent book soon requires a new edition. T.R. Birkhead, Ibis (2007), 149, 175-188 Oxford University Press has established itself as a leading publisher of high quality ornithology texts ... the strength of this book, and the others in the series, lies in its high scientific goal, its top quality illustration and its ability to present a wealth of information in a manner that is readily accessible to the amateur serious about learning more about ornithology not only of individual bird families but of birds as a whole. Avian and Poultry Biology Reviews OUP are always keen to support the text with good illustrations. The series is characterised by specially commissioned colour plates, here done by Eustace Barnes, that illustrate species, subspecies, genders and age-related plumage characteristics. In this volume, colour photographs of some of the bowers are included. Add to this clear maps and line drawings, as well as half-tone photographs by the author, and as a result The Bowerbirds becomes an attractive book that is worthy of any bookshelf ... From my own perspective, I love this book. Avian and Poultry Biology Reviews