This book provides a fresh synthesis on the knowledge of species formation in birds and the factors that influence their geographical distributions.

The first book to deal comprehensively with bird speciation and recent DNA research; Excellent account of bird biogeography and related matters; Unique up-to-date synthesis of species formation and distributional history of birds.

Speciation and Biogeography of Birds describes how new bird species evolve and how they come to be distributed in their current state. It explains how the earth's history, including past climate changes, have influenced the geographical ranges of birds and the factors that affect their current distributions. This book further details how the numbers and types of bird species vary from region to region across the world and how their current patterns of distribution have been influenced by a variety of factors including: the earth's history, movement of the continents, fomration and loss of oceanic islands, glacial and other climatic cycles, and the influence of human activities.