With its striking green-black and white plumage and distinctive pee-witcall, the Lapwing is one of Britain's best-known birds. Lapwings dependon agricultural land to breed and are considered a barometer of thehealth of this habitat; the population has crashed over recent decades,partly due to changes in farming practices. In winter, Lapwings switchto coastal areas and to wetlands, including those in suburban areas,where large, noisy flocks can gather.Michael Shrubb's The Lapwingis a concise yet authoritative monograph of this popular species; athorough review of Lapwing biology contains sections on populationdynamics, feeding ecology, habitat use, migration, and conservation;there is an impressively detailed review of our current understandingof breeding biology, plus discussion of some other species in thegenus.The Lapwing is a superbaddition to the Poyser list. Of interest to both amateur naturalists,who will enjoy insights into the birds' lives, and to academics, whowill appreciate the broad overview of current research, this title willremain the definitive work on the species for many years to come.
