This is a review of the third edition of the book Ornithology, by Frank B. Gill, published in 2007 by WH Freeman and Company. My experience with this book comes from taking a graduate agricultural school elective course, essentially the same as the undergraduate ornithology course, while studying at the University of Delaware.
Summary, appropriate level and audience:
Gill’s Ornithology book is engaging and written in a captivating and accessible style, yet at the same time it is dense and nuanced. It is without superfluous flowery language or unnecessary repetitions. The book also makes prominent and frequent use of examples, drawn from species from around the world.
The effect of using examples in this book is that, by the end of reading the entire text, the student or reader will not only have a good understanding of the abstract ideas, trends, and general theories on the subject of ornithology, but they also have a fairly wide range of examples of different bird species, and their particular traits, ecology, and evolutionary history.
I think the best audience for this book would be advanced undergraduate students who are adept at reading scientific texts and have an introductory understanding of biology and ecology, or graduate students in more tangentially related fields who want to acquire a good overview of the topic. of ornithology. Although this book would be an excellent choice as a textbook for a standard undergraduate ornithology course (and is widely used as such), I think it would also be an excellent self-study text.
The book is long, however, and reading the entire text and getting the most out of it will require a considerable investment of time reading. To cover this text in a single semester-long course, students will need to read and reflect on a substantial volume of fairly dense writing nearly every day. However, the time invested will be well worth it, in terms of the deep understanding of the subject that can be gained from this book.
third edition vs. Second edition:
When it comes to textbooks, an important question that both teachers and students ask is: “Can I get away with using an older edition of this book?”
Unfortunately, in many fields of academic study, many mainstream academic publishers have fallen into the unscrupulous practice of publishing unnecessary new editions of textbooks to increase their own profits. The business model is dishonest, and it works like this: By publishing a new edition, publishers decrease the market value of old editions and increase the rate at which students buy new books. Often new editions consist of little more than a mish-mash of themes and represent little or no improvement on previous editions, sometimes even having as many bugs as they fix.
The Gill Ornithology text is not an example of this “edit drag”. The third edition is truly revolutionary, as far as textbooks are concerned. Although the second edition of Gill’s text was a prominent and authoritative text at the time it was written, the field of ornithology has changed radically since 1994, when the first text was published. The third edition text not only references extensive newer scholarship and cutting-edge work, but also reflects a profound critical re-examination of the field as a whole. Gill shows a clear enthusiasm for the subject of ornithology, and the changes and revolutions that have been taking place in this field in recent years. And finally, the third edition demonstrates influences from developments and changes in other broader fields of study, such as ecology and climate.
The topics in the book that have changed the most since the previous edition are those related to bird intelligence, updating taxonomic and evolutionary relationships due to change, and updates on conservation issues. However, almost all of Gill’s text reflects comprehensive updates based on modern scholarship.
In summary:
Frank B Gill Ornithology It is an excellent textbook on the subject of ornithology, and is suitable for classroom use for advanced undergraduate or graduate students, and is also excellent for self-study. The 3rd Edition represents essential updates to the 2nd Edition, and I would absolutely recommend anyone buy the 3rd Edition over the 2nd.