Evolutionary ecology and radiation of Hawaiian passerine birds

Author:

Freed, Leonard A., Conant, Sheila, Fleischer, Robert C.

Title:

Evolutionary ecology and radiation of Hawaiian passerine birds

Periodical:

Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Year:

1987

Volume:

2

Pages:

196-203

Subject:

Passerine birds Hawaiian honeycreepers Birds evolution

Summary:

The Hawaiian island contain the most spectacular variety of landbirds that were ever discovered on remote oceanic islands where 29 living and 12 historically extinct species, an additional 17 living or historically extinct subspecies, and 18 fossil endemic species, make up at least four different families from at least six separate colonizations. The speciose Hawaiian honeycreeper (subfamily Drepanidinae in Fringillidae) contribute most to the radiation through remarkable variation in plumage coloration and in bill and tongue morphology related to diverse foraging and dietary habits. This document describes the evolution of the Hawaiian Passerine Birds that illustrates the extreme differentiation and radiation of an insular avifauna. Reviewed are studies of these passerines that reveal patterns and issues in the systematics and evolutionary ecology of the radiation. Assessed is the differentiation and speciation of these birds and the potential contributions of isolation, adaptation, interspecific competition, as well as social and sexual competition in effecting this radiation.

Label:

Birds - General

Date:

1987

Collection:

Periodicals