Description: The petrels, or tubenosed birds, include the shearwaters, albatrosses, and the storm, diving and gadfly petrels. As a group they enjoy worldwide distribution and often form a major part of their marine communities. Their long distance migrations, complex social behaviour and colonial breeding habits comprise an ideal setting for the study of comparative ecology, in addition to the importance of their role in the food web of the world's oceans. Over a lifetime's work with the group, John Warham has firmly established himself as one of the foremost experts on these birds. In this book he completes the major survey started in his earlier work, The Petrels: their ecology and breeding systems. Chapters deal with population dynamics, distribution and migration, feeding and social behaviour, physiology, anatomy, evolution, and conservation. The text is comprehensive, well illustrated and fully referenced. Together with the earlier, companion volume, this encyclopaedic treatment presents an amazingly detailed, yet accessible introduction to this important, much studied bird family, both for the biologist, and conservation manager and the dedicated amateur ornithologist.

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