Bird Song

C. K. Catchpole is currently Professor of Animal Behaviour at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has written, broadcast and researched on many aspects of bird ecology and behaviour for more than thirty years and published over 100 books, articles and scientific papers. He has studied birds in many parts of the world and has been a visiting researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology in Germany and the California Academy of Sciences in the USA. P. J. B. Slater is Kennedy Professor of Natural History at the University of St Andrews. He is a former Editor of Animal Behaviour and of Advances in the Study of Behavior, and is a Past President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, which awarded him its medal in 1999. In 1991 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is the author of around 150 scientific papers and several books, and has been studying acoustic communication, largely in birds, for thirty years.

• 1. The study of bird song; 2. Production and perception; 3. How song develops; 4. Getting the message across; 5. When do birds sing?; 6. Recognition and territorial defence; 7. Sexual selection and female choice; 8. Themes and variations; 9. Variation in time and space.

'… the well-known authors and experts, Professor C. K. Catchpole and Professor P. J. B. Slater thoroughly achieve their stated aims in this excellent book … having read it avidly from cover to cover, I think it is an excellent read … if … you are at all interested in why and how birds vocalise, go out and buy this book.' Wildlife Sound