Why Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem ServicesWhy Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services edited by Çağan H. Şekercioğlu, Daniel G. Wenny, and Christopher J. Whelan. 2016. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA. x + 387 pp. $45 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-226-38263-0.

Why Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services edited by Çağan H. S xekercioğlu, Daniel G. Wenny, and Christopher J. Whelan. 2016. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA. xþ 387 pp. $45 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-226-38263-0. This edited volume examines the many ways in which humans benefit from the ecological functions and ecosystem services that are provided by birds. Just a decade or so ago, concepts such as ‘‘ecological functions’’ and ‘‘ecosystem serv ices ’’ were re lat ive ly unheard of, but research examining and quantifying the functions and services provided by animals, including birds, has proliferated in recent years. Such research has highlighted that humans actually benefit from birds in myriad ways, both directly and indirectly. Direct benefits range from the consumption of birds as food for subsistence in some societies to financial gains from increased crop yields due to insectivorous birds providing a cheap and effective way of controlling insect pest populations on commercially valuable crops. Indirect benefits are those services that may not appear, at first glance, to be beneficial to humans because they are perhaps less tangible than direct benefits. However, by dispersing seeds—which, in turn, support plant species and ecosystems more generally—birds indirectly contribute to the wider environment in which humans live. One particularly topical example highlighting the benefits that humans accrue from birds relates to the scavenging of carcasses by vultures throughout southern Asia. The vultures provide important sanitary services by scavenging carcasses, but the recent catastrophic declines of vultures in South Asia mean that more and more carcasses have been left untouched. The increasing numbers of carcasses left lying around has led to irruptions of rats and feral dogs, many of which carry rabies, and the numbers of human illnesses and deaths that are attributable to rabies have subsequently increased in recent years. Fascinatingly, one study (reported in Chapter 2) estimated that healthy vulture populations prevent human health costs, such as the loss of wages and even human life, of up to $2.4 billion per year! These examples, and many others, illustrate that by seeking to outline the ecological functions and ecosystem services provided by birds, this volume is highly topical and of great interest to a broad range of ornithologists and ecologists.