| Title | Claps | Level | Year | L/Y |
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Habitat Selection in Birds: The Roles of Vegetation Structure, Competitors, and Productivity
M. Cody
Ecologists have been interested in the factors that affect habitat selection in birds for centuries, especially those that segregate taxonomically and ecologically related species. In the 18th century Gilbert White discovered that there are three si…
Ecologists have been interested in the factors that affect habitat selection in birds for centuries, especially those that segregate taxonomically and ecologically related species. In the 18th century Gilbert White discovered that there are three sibling species (not one as previously thought) of Phylloscopus warblers in England; he used differences in their breeding habitats as well as differences in their songs to distinguish them. Writing to Thomas Pennant in 1768, White related that he had "now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the willow wren [Phylloscopus] . . ." Of the two smallest, "one has a joyous and easy laugh [trochilus] . . ., the other a harsh chirp of two notes [collybita]." The third [sibilatrix] "makes a sibilous grasshopper-like noise . . . and haunts only the tops of trees in high beechen woods" [White 1906 (1789)]. Later, Howard (1920) discussed the interrelations of habitat, food, and territory among the Phylloscopus species at length, and their systematic revision by Ticehurst in 1938 included habitat differences among the characteristics most likely to aid the field observer in distinguishing among species. Although the subject of habitat selection has been intensively studied since these pioneer works (see reviews by Hilden 1965, Lack 1971, Cody 1974), bird ecologists are still bringing to light new facts and facets of the problem. Consider what faces a small bird that seeks to es-
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3
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8 | 1981 |
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