Review by Choice Review
Recent five-year field surveys by more than 500 birders across Iowa provide an in-depth assessment of that state's avifauna. Herein, the data is summarized in species accounts by regionally knowledgeable field ornithologists. Each of the 200 accounts includes a large state map showing distribution by county, a historical review of that species in Iowa, life history notes, and current (atlas project) status with conservation comments on the more important factors affecting the bird's distribution. The accounts are rich in literature citations, and include a species photograph. Since Euroamerican settlement, Iowa has lost more than 90 percent of its wetland and prairie habitats, while forested lands have decreased more than 70 percent. Today, the state is considered 94 percent farmland, with serious management concerns of farm chemical use and habitat fragmentation/diversity. The book's discussions of these problems will be of interest to avian conservationists in many agricultural states, especially in the Midwest. General readers; undergraduates through faculty. C. Leck Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
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