Bird Conservation and Agriculture

Jeremy D. Wilson is Head of Research for RSPB Scotland. He has worked as a Royal 1851 Commission Fellow on the role of dispersal in population dynamics of Dippers, and led a research study of the consequences of organic farming for bird populations for the British Trust for Ornithology. He is an Editor for the British Ornithologists' Union journal, Ibis, and an Associate Editor of the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Andrew D. Evans joined the RSPB as a field biologist in 1988, studying the reasons behind the near extinction of the cirl bunting in the UK. This put him at the forefront of the unfolding story of bird population declines as a result of agricultural intensification. He is currently Head of Species Recovery at the RSPB. Philip V. Grice has worked professionally as an ornithologist in the government's nature conservation bodies since 1991, and is now a Senior Specialist in ornithology at Natural England. He has worked on a broad range of bird conservation issues but has become increasingly concerned with addressing the declines in farmland birds since the mid-1990s.

• Introduction: birds and agriculture in Britain; 1. The history of agriculture in Britain; Part I. The Habitats and their Birds: 2. The field; 3. The field boundary; 4. Semi-natural heathlands and grasslands; Part II. Trends and Patterns: 5. Bird population trends; 6. Patterns of association between agricultural change and wildlife populations; Part III. The Effects of Agricultural Change on Birds: 7. Large-scale studies of abundance, distribution and demograph; 8. Species case studies; 9. Studies of changing agricultural practice; 10. What future for birds and agriculture in Britain?

'… important textbook … exemplary … The material is presented very clearly in tables and figures, supported by photos and delightful line drawings.' Bulletin of the British Ecological Society