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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 123, No. 4. December 2011 
time lag for populations to be lost after degrada¬ 
tion of their habitats, forest areas as large as 
10,000 ha may lose many bird species within 
100 years. The chapter on climate change 
describes the future of tropical birds as nothing 
if not a disaster. Their sedentary behavior and the 
large spatial scale of their forest habitats indicate 
that most birds will be unable to shift sufficiently 
fast or far to keep up with rising temperatures 
when these affect their habitats over the next few 
decades. Climate change also affects birds by 
increases in diseases, such as bird malaria, and by 
increasing seasonality and variability of rainfall, 
and in land and sea temperatures. 
Errors are few; the only howler I noted was the 
reference (page 82) of tropical forest species with 
small clutch sizes, lower productivity, and longer 
life spans as T-selected' life histories (rather than 
’k-selected'). The term T-selection' in the 1970s 
and 1980s, following MacArthur and Wilson’s 
work on island biogeography, was used to 
describe species with a life history of rapid 
reproduction, and ‘k-sclection’ to describe species 
with traits that promote competitive success and 
survival. The terms came from growth curve 
equations, where T’ was an exponential factor in 
population growth and ‘k’ was the carrying 
capacity of the environment. The book index 
includes both bird species and localities. The 
maps, graphs and photographs are more visually 
compelling in the color plates than in the 
corresponding black and white images in the 
chapter texts. 
The book is a useful reference on the 
conservation ecology of tropical birds. As many 
as 600 threatened bird species do not have a single 
published study on their biology, and there is 
much to be done in this field; the results may 
inform conservation strategies. 1 recommend the 
book to anyone with an interest in bird ecology 
and conservation and in birds of the tropics.— 
ROBERT B. PAYNE, Professor Emeritus. Uni¬ 
versity of Michigan, 1306 Granger Avenue, 
Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA; e-mail: rbpayne@ 
umich.edu 
THE BIRDS OF PANAMA: A FIELD GUIDE. 
By George R. Angehr and Robert Dean. Zona 
Tropical/Cornel I University Press, Ithaca, New 
York, USA. 2010: 456 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8014- 
7674-7. $35.00 (paperback).—On a natural fence- 
row at the edge of a pasture, flitted a small yellow 
bird with an orange tint to its face. A quick 
thumbing to the flycatcher section of Angehr and 
Dean’s new field guide confirmed my suspected 
identification. Ochrc-lored Flatbill (’’Yellow- 
breasted Flycatcher” in Angehr and Dean. 
Tolmomyias flaviventris). a recent colonist from 
northern South America into eastern Panama. The 
illustration of this species on page 234 is spot on: 
whereas it is unmentioned, let alone illustrated, in 
Ridgely and Gwynne’x 1989 second edition of ,4 
Guide to the Birds of Panama (Princeton 
University Press). This trip to the Darien Province 
of eastern Panama was my first with Angehr and 
Dean’s new field guide, and I’ve been using it 
almost exclusively ever since. 
Replacing an icon is always difficult but. in the 
more than 20 years since Ridgely and Gwynne, 
much has changed both in the printing world and 
in Panama. Perhaps most importantly, the cost of 
color printing has decreased substantially, and an 
entire glossy book with plates on the right side of 
every page-pair is economically feasible. Thus. 
Angehr and Dean is a ‘second generation’ field 
guide in the spirit of the iconic National 
Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North 
America, sharing the conventions of the domi¬ 
nance of graphics over text, full-body paintings of 
all bird species regularly found in the region, and 
color-coded range maps-ail in a format empha¬ 
sizing portability over an exhaustive review of 
natural history . The result, in the case of Angehr 
and Dean, is one of the best examples to date of 
the contemporary Neotropic bird guide. Let's be 
clear: the zealot may wish to keep a copy of 
Ridgely and Gwynne in the car, hotel, or home 
office, but this new guide is the one book that the 
bird enthusiast in Panama will want to carry in the 
field, and also makes for the best go-to office 
reference for questions of currentl) r -known distri¬ 
bution. This book also benefits from over two 
decades of additional field expeditions, both by 
museum ornithologists and avocational bird 
enthusiasts. Areas such as the Rid Changuinola. 
Burica Peninsula. Coiba Island, Cerros Hoya and 
Chucanti. and the Pinas-Jaque region are among a 
myriad of localities that had only been visited by 
one or two collecting parties at the time Ridgely 
and Gywnne was drafted. It is no exaggeration to 
say that Angehr and Dean's Panama is a quite 
different ornithological landscape compared to 
just 20 years ago. 
George Angehr is the leading authority alive on 
the birds of Panama. Over the last decade, Angehr 
