Ecosystem services are natural processes that benefit humans. Birds contribute the four types of services recognized by the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment-provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. In this review, we concentrate primarily on supporting services, and to a lesser extent, provisioning and regulating services. As members of ecosystems, birds play many roles, including as predators, pollinators, scavengers, seed dispersers, seed predators, and ecosystem engineers. These ecosystem services fall into two subcategories: those that arise via behavior (like consumption of agricultural pests) and those that arise via bird products (like nests and guano). Characteristics of most birds make them quite special from the perspective of ecosystem services. Because most birds fly, they can respond to irruptive or pulsed resources in ways generally not possible for other vertebrates. Migratory species link ecosystem processes and fluxes that are separated by great distances and times. Although the economic value to humans contributed by most, if not all, of the supporting services has yet to be quantified, we believe they are important to humans. Our goals for this review are 1) to lay the groundwork on these services to facilitate future efforts to estimate their economic value, 2) to highlight gaps in our knowledge, and 3) to point to future directions for additional research.

Ecosystem Services Provided by Birds

For migratory birds, early arrival and physical condition on the breeding grounds are important determinants of reproductive success and fitness. Differences in arrival times often exceed a month, and later arriving individuals are often in poorer condition. Habitat-specific isotopic signatures indicate that the quality of winter habitats occupied by American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) determines their physical condition and spring departure dates, which in turn result in variable arrival schedules and condition on temperate breeding grounds. These findings link events in tropical winter grounds with those in temperate breeding areas for a migratory songbird and provide evidence that winter habitats may be limiting.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/282/5395/1884.full.pdf

Linking Winter and Summer Events in a Migratory Bird by Using Stable-Carbon Isotopes

Variation in the extent of sexual dimorphism among bird species is traditionally attributed to differences in social mating system. However, there are many different forms of dimorphism among birds, and not all of them show an obvious correlation with social mating system. For example, recent work has shown that many highly polygamous species are, in fact, monomorphic, whereas many putatively monogamous species are dimorphic. In this paper we break up sexual dimorphism into subcomponents and then use comparative analyses to examine the pattern of covariation between these subcomponents and various aspects of sexual, social, and par ental behaviour. Our first finding is that size dimorphism and plumage-colour dimorphism do not show the same pattern of covariation. Differences in size dimorphism are associated with variation in social mating system and sex differences in parental care, whereas differences in plumage-colour dimorphism are associated with variation in the frequency of extra-bond paternity. These results suggest that size dimorphism is associated with the sort of intrasexual competition described by traditional classifications of social mating system, whereas plumage-colour dimorphism is associated with cryptic female choice. However, when we break up plumage-colour dimorphism according to whether it is due to melanins, carotenoids or structural colours, we find that each category of plumage-colour dimorphism shows a different pattern of covariation. The correlation between overall plumage-colour dimorphism and the rate of extra-bond paternity is due to structural colours, whereas melanin-based dimorphism is associated with sex differences in parental care. The former result is particularly interesting given that new work suggests structural colours are associated with active sexual displays and the reflection of ultraviolet light.

Sexual dimorphism in birds : Why are there so many different forms of dimorphism?

Croizat, L., G. Nelson, and D. E. Rosen (Department of Ichthyology, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York 10024) 1974. Centers of origin and related concepts. Syst. Zool. 23:265-287.-The concept of center of origin in the Darwinian sense is often accepted and used as if it were a conceptual model necessary and fundamental to historical zoogeographical analysis. But in certain respects it is inconsistent with the principles of common ancestry and vicariance2 (e.g., allopatric speciation), and its application to concrete examples of animal distribution generally yields ambiguous results. In the following pages we present a critique of the concept of center of origin, and outline an alternative conceptual model, involving generalized patterns of biotic distribution (generalized tracks). We assume that a given generalized track estimates an ancestral biota that, because of changing geography, has become subdivided into descendant biotas in localized areas. We assume that in such areas, more or less biotically isolated from one another by barriers to dispersal, the descendant biotas differentiate and produce more modern patterns of taxonomic diversity and distribution. We reject the Darwinian concept of center of origin and its corollary, dispersal of species, as a conceptual model of general applicability in historical biogeography. We admit the reality of dispersal and specify how examples of dispersal may be recognized with reference both to sympatry and to generalized tracks, but we suggest that on a global basis the general features of modern biotic distribution have been determined by subdivision of ancestral biotas in response to changing geography. [Biogeography; distribution; evolution.]

Centers of origin and related concepts

Aim
To evaluate the internal consistency and appropriateness of Takhtajan’s system of world-wide floral Kingdoms in the light of modern knowledge, and similarly to re-examine the Wallacean system of mammal biogeographic regions.

Main conclusions
It is suggested that Takhtajan’s Cape and Antarctic floral Kingdoms should be deleted, and their constituent parts allocated to the neighbouring Kingdoms. The mammal biogeographic regions are to be restricted to the continents, as defined by the edges of the continental shelves, and the name ‘Wallacea’ is accepted for the area between the Southeast Asian and Australian continental shelves. Modifications are suggested for the names of some of the floral Kingdoms and mammal biogeographic regions.

The biogeographic regions reconsidered

The birds of North America

/pdf/a-treatise-on-the-geography-and-classification-of-animals-by-2dcan9z0gp.pdf

A treatise on the geography and classification of animals. By William Swainson.

Mammalogy and ornithology

Re-print of a field guide to different species of birds in North America, including illustrations of some birds, also listed in Appendix II. Index begins on page 293.

Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America

/pdf/illustrations-of-the-birds-of-california-texas-oregon-2t72hli62w.pdf

Illustrations of the birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America. : Intended to contain descriptions and figures of all North American birds not given by former American authors, and a general synopsis of North American ornithology. / By John Cassin, member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the American Philosophical Society; of the Horticultural Society of Pennsylvania; of the National Institute; of the South

John Cassin

Papers

The birds of North America

A treatise on the geography and classification of animals. By William Swainson.

Mammalogy and ornithology

Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America