Lever Christopher Lever Naturalised Birds of the World

Annotation

This book looks at the world's naturalised (successfully introduced)species of bird. Many species have been introduced to countries outsidetheir natural range by people, either deliberately or accidentally,with varied consequences for both those species themselves and thenative fauna of their 'new' homes. In Britain, the introduced CanadaGoose has quickly become ubiquitous at every lake and riverside, whilethe Golden Pheasant remains a scarce and unobtrusive inhabitant of afew scattered, remote woodlands. The House Sparrow and Common Starling,both in decline over parts of their native range, are thriving in anaturalised state in North America and elsewhere in the world.Naturalised populations of Mallard in various parts of the world arethreatening a total of seven other duck species with extinction throughhybridisation. This book discusses each species in turn, describing how, why, whenand where its introduction took place, how it became established, andthe ecological and economic impacts its presence has had in the countryor countries it is naturalised in. Each account has a map, showingnatural and introduced range, and there is a wealth of beautiful linedrawings of the species concerned.