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What draws us to the beauty of a peacock, the flight of an eagle, or the song of a nightingale? Why are birds so significant in our lives and our sense of the world? And what do our ways of thinking about and experiencing birds tell us about ourselves? Birdscapes is a unique meditation on the variety of human responses to birds, from antiquity to today, and from casual observers to the globe-trotting \"twitchers\" who sometimes risk life, limb, and marriages simply to add new species to their \"life lists.\" Drawing extensively on literature, history, philosophy, and science, Jeremy Mynott puts his own experiences as a birdwatcher in a rich cultural context. His sources range from the familiar--Thoreau, Keats, Darwin, and Audubon--to the unexpected--Benjamin Franklin, Giacomo Puccini, Oscar Wilde, and Monty Python. Just as unusual are the extensive illustrations, which explore our perceptions and representations of birds through images such as national emblems, women's hats, professional sports logos, and a Christmas biscuit tin, as well as classics of bird art. Each chapter takes up a new theme--from rarity, beauty, and sound to conservation, naming, and symbolism--and is set in a new place, as Mynott travels from his \"home patch\" in Suffolk, England, to his \"away patch\" in New York City's Central Park, as well as to Russia, Australia, and Greece. Conversational, playful, and witty, Birdscapes gently leads us to reflect on large questions about our relation to birds and the natural world. It encourages birders to see their pursuits in a broader human context--and it shows nonbirders what they may be missing.

1. Uncropped field margins are important foraging habitats on farmland for many declining bird species and are a key component of Agri-Environment Schemes across Europe. Maximizing the value of foraging habitats requires detailed knowledge of the factors influencing habitat selection and food availability. 2. We firstly conducted an observational study of foraging habitat selection by breeding yellowhammers Emberiza citrinella L. on lowland mixed farmland, in relation to underlying invertebrate and vegetation characteristics. 3. There was a clear seasonal shift in the relative use of field margins and cereal crops. Margins were used less than crops in late summer, despite supporting higher invertebrate abundance relative to cereals. Seasonal increases in vegetation height were most marked in margins, suggesting the seasonal decline in margin use may reflect reduced food accessibility. 4. In the second phase of the study, field margins were cut experimentally to create short, open patches within taller margin swards. The use of cut patches by foraging yellowhammers increased significantly between early and late summer, and patches were used more frequently with increasing height of adjacent uncut margin. These findings strongly support the theory that tall vegetation reduces margin accessibility in late summer. 5. Synthesis and applications. Provision of invertebrate-rich field margins is a core component of Agri-Environment Schemes, but current prescriptions may result in them having limited value in late summer. More effective management, such as more frequent cutting, may be required to maximize the benefits for foraging birds by creating short, open vegetation patches. Measures to increase accessibility to invertebrates on farmland are likely to benefit a range of bird species across a variety of crop types.

1. The response of bird abundance to the proportional availability of un-cropped land (i.e. land that could be cultivated, such as fallows, grass—flower or wild bird areas) is under-studied but of considerable significance for managing declining populations on farmland in western Europe. 2. In this study, bird abundance was examined at a scale consistent with many national monitoring schemes. Birds were counted on 28 farm sites of c. 100 ha, representing cereal-based and organic rotations. Sites were surveyed in summer, from 2007 to 2010, to assess the effect of the percentage cover and spatial arrangement of un-cropped land on bird abundance, with data analysed at the whole-farm (not patch) scale. 3. Un-cropped land area had significant effects on the abundance of key species (those with a high dependency on farmland) when controlling for effects of semi-natural habitats and management. On farms with < 3% of their total area as un-cropped land, the densities of birds were significantly lower than on farms with > 10% area of un-cropped land. 4. Positive, significant effects of the percentage area of un-cropped land were detected for lapwing, skylark, linnet and yellowhammer and for all highly farmland-dependent species combined. The relationship between un-cropped land and bird abundance was stronger on conventional compared with organic farms, suggesting a greater importance of un-cropped land on conventional farms. 5. Un-cropped land patch arrangement was significant for skylark and linnet abundance but generally weak amongst species compared with the availability of un-cropped land. Skylarks were positively associated with a larger relative edge effect amongst patches, whereas linnets were more associated with larger blocks of contiguous habitat. 6. Synthesis and applications. This study provides important evidence for a proportionate effect of habitat provision on farmland bird abundance. The relative area of un-cropped land had the strongest effect on bird abundance. Sites with < 3% (and, to a lesser extent, < 5%) un-cropped land were highly under-populated. A two-fold increase in the area of un-cropped land was associated with an average 16-53% increase in the relative abundance of key species, which has implications for the contribution of un-cropped areas towards population stabilization amongst farmland birds in Europe.

1. The management of habitat structure can limit access to food and can also alter perceived predation risk. Minimising the risk of predation, by changing behaviour, may have negative impacts similar to predation itself across a wide range of species. Predation risk influences the behaviour of adults foraging for altricial young, so that they avoid disclosing the location of their offspring to predators. The consequences of these behavioural changes for offspring are unknown. 2. We investigate whether predator-induced changes in provisioning rates can have impacts upon avian nestlings through reductions in growth and condition, and whether this is influenced by resource availability, using the declining yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella as a model species. 3. We show a sizeable negative impact of nest predator activity upon brood provisioning rate, indicating that parents can assess nest predation risk and adjust their behaviour accordingly. 4. Chick condition and growth were both negatively influenced by corvid nest predator abundance and positively influenced by food abundance in large broods, suggesting that parents raising large broods in unfavourable conditions were unable to compensate fully for the effect of corvid activity on provisioning rate. 5. In areas of low food availability, corvid abundance was associated with reduced chick growth and condition; in areas of higher food availability no association was found indicating that where food resources are abundant, parents can compensate for reductions in provisioning rate when corvids are active, with no long-term implications for chicks. 6. Synthesis and applications. We propose a mechanism by which two distinct trends linked with the intensification of agriculture, namely increasing corvid abundance combined with a decreasing food supply, may have indirectly precipitated population declines in farmland passerines through delayed life-history effects across generations. As the impacts of corvids are reduced where invertebrates are abundant, we suggest that management should concentrate on improving the quality of foraging habitat by creating mosaics of long and short vegetation, rather than on the control of corvids. This will allow adult birds to compensate for the indirect effects of high corvid abundance by increasing their provisioning effort when nest predation risk is low and thus buffer any long-term consequences for nestlings.

Predation pressure on many threatened species, including European farmland songbirds, may have increased over recent decades. Predator reduction to protect declining bird populations is a controversial but potentially important tool for managers. Its effects require measurement before its consideration in conservation. Game management typically combines sympathetic habitat management measures with reduction of nest predators. It has been proffered as additionally benefiting farmland songbirds, but little is known about the effects on their demography. We analyzed 11 years of nest data from 6 songbird species on 3 lowland farms. The different game management regimes on the farms enabled us to test the hypotheses that systematic predator reduction (mammals and corvids) and sporadic corvid reduction improve nest success in songbirds. We detected a positive effect of systematic predator reduction on common blackbird (Turdus merula), common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), dunnock (Prunella modularis), song thrush (T. philomelos), and yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) but not common whitethroat (Sylvia communis). For the 5 species that demonstrated an effect, systematic predator reduction improved the odds of nests surviving a day within the nest cycle by a factor of between 1.59 and 1.89. For common blackbird, the effect occurred at the egg (laying and incubation) stage of the nest cycle, whereas for other species it occurred across stages. Sporadic corvid reduction had a positive effect on nest survival only for common blackbird (at the nestling stage only) and a negative effect only for yellowhammer (across both stages). The extent to which predator reduction might influence populations may depend on mechanisms such as re-nesting compensation and overwinter mortality. Where habitat management is in place to assist threatened songbirds, intensive, systematic nest predator reduction may provide a useful conservation tool for improvement of nest success.

BACKGROUND: Pathogens and parasites can have major impacts on host population dynamics, both through direct mortality and via indirect effects. Both types of effect may be stronger in species whose populations are already under pressure. We investigated the potential for blood parasites to impact upon their hosts at the immunological, physiological and population level during the non-breeding season using a declining population of yellowhammers Emberiza citrinella as a model. RESULTS: Yellowhammers infected by Haemoproteus spp. showed both a reduced heterophil to lymphocyte (H:L) ratio, and an elevated standardised white blood cell (WBC) count compared to uninfected birds, indicating an immunological response to infection. Infected birds had shorter wings during the first winter of sampling but not during the second, colder, winter; survival analysis of 321 birds sampled across four winters indicated that increased wing length conferred a survival advantage. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that the potential impacts of blood parasite infections on over-wintering birds may have been underestimated. Further research should consider the potential impacts of sub-clinical parasite infections on the dynamics of vulnerable populations, and we suggest using declining populations as model systems within which to investigate these relationships as well as examining interactions between sub-clinical disease and other environmental stressors. JEL CODE: Q5

Capsule Large buntings prefer cereal grains whilst sparrows also take oily seeds. Aims To determine seed food preferences of Tree Sparrow Passer montanus and Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra. Methods Forty seed choice experiments were conducted at two sites over two winters. In each experiment, two seed types were provided and the number of visits made by birds to each type was recorded over a set period. At one site, Tree Sparrows were colour-ringed, allowing choices made by individual birds to be recorded. Data were also collected for House Sparrow Passer domesticus, Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella and Reed Bunting E. schoeniclus. Results All five species fed intensively on cereal grain, and wheat and oats were consistently preferred to barley. Sparrows and Reed Buntings also took maize, which was avoided by Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer. Tree Sparrow exhibited a broad diet, selecting cereal grain and oily seeds including sunflower and oilseed rape, but rye-grass seed was almost completely avoided. Conclusion Cereal grain should be a key component of over-winter provision of seed for farmland passerines, especially when targeted at Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer. Oily seeds such as brassicas and sunflower will benefit species with more generalist diets, including Tree Sparrows.

In November 2001, the state of Alabama opened a referendum on its long-standing constitutional prohibition against interracial marriage. A bill on the state ballot offered the opportunity to relegate the state's antimiscegenation law to the dustbin of history. The measure passed, but the margin was alarmingly slim: more than half a million voters, 40 percent of those who went to the polls, voted to retain a racist and constitutionally untenable law. Julie Novkov's Racial Union explains how and why, nearly forty years after the height of the civil rights movement, Alabama struggled to repeal its prohibition against interracial marriage—the last state in the Union to do so. Novkov's compelling history of Alabama's battle over miscegenation shows how the fight shaped the meanings of race and state over ninety years. Novkov's work tells us much about the sometimes parallel, sometimes convergent evolution of our concepts of race and state in the nation as a whole.

An authoritative popular history that places the state in regional and national context Alabama is a state full of contrasts. On the one hand, it has elected the lowest number of women to the state legislature of any state in the union; yet according to historians it produced two of the ten most important American women of the 20th century—Helen Keller and Rosa Parks. Its people are fanatically devoted to conservative religious values; yet they openly idolize tarnished football programs as the source of their heroes. Citizens who are puzzled by Alabama's maddening resistance to change or its incredibly strong sense of tradition and community will find important clues and new understanding within these pages. Written by passionate Alabamian and accomplished historian Wayne Flynt, Alabama in the Twentieth Century offers supporting arguments for both detractors and admirers of the state. A native son who has lived, loved, taught, debated, and grieved within the state for 60 of the 100 years described, the author does not flinch from pointing out Alabama's failures, such as the woeful yoke of a 1901 state constitution, the oldest one in the nation; neither is he restrained in calling attention to the state's triumphs against great odds, such as its phenomenal number of military heroes and gifted athletes, its dazzling array of writers, folk artists, and musicians, or its haunting physical beauty despite decades of abuse. Chapters are organized by topic—politics, the economy, education, African Americans, women, the military, sport, religion, literature, art, journalism—rather than chronologically, so the reader can digest the whole sweep of the century on a particular subject. Flynt’s writing style is engaging, descriptive, free of clutter, yet based on sound scholarship. This book offers teachers and readers alike the vast range and complexity of Alabama's triumphs and low points in a defining century. *