"Things are going wrong with our environment, " writes John Terborgh,
"even the parts of it that are nominally protected. If we wait until all
the answers are in, we may find ourselves in a much worse predicament
than if we had taken notice of the problem earlier. By waiting, one
risks being too late; on the other hand, there can be no such thing as
being too early." Terborgh's warnings are essential reading for all who
care about migratory birds and our natural environment. Why are tropical
migrant species disappearing from our forests? Can we save the birds
that are left? Terborgh takes a more comprehensive view of migratory
birds than is usual--by asking how they spend their lives during the
half-year they reside in the tropics. By scrutinizing ill-planned urban
and suburban development in the United States and the tropical
deforestation of Central and South America, he summarizes our knowledge
of the subtle combination of circumstances that is devastating our bird
populations. This work is pervaded by Terborgh's love for the thrushes,
warblers, vireos, cuckoos, flycatchers, and tanagers that inhabited his
family's woodland acreage while he was growing upbirds that no longer
live there, in spite of the preservation of those same woods as part of
a county park. The book is a tour of topics as varied as ecological
monitoring, the plight of the Chesapeake wetlands, the survival struggle
of Central American subsistence farmers, and the management of
commercial forests.