The European Roller (Coracias garrulus): Ecology, Evolution and Conservation in the Anthropocene

The European roller is one of the most striking coloured birds in several countries of Europe, but with relatively scarce published scientific information as compared with other equivalents. Knowledge on their natural history is scattered into old general Handbooks and Bird Guides and refers mostly to basic aspects in the north of its breeding area. However, during the last two decades, there is an upsurge of research on roller conservation and ecology. Our aim in the proposed book is to provide an up-to-date picture of the roller´s natural history by compiling and synthetizing all the scientific knowledge on ecology and conservation of the species across its distributional range. Beyond this, the book is structured around the idea that the roller is a sentinel species of human impacts on European steppes and farmlands, and, the need to address holistic approaches (multipopulation-studies and considering complete life cycle from breeding sites to wintering and migration) to obtain areal picture of human impacts on wildlife. The book is aimed at professional ecologists, behavioural ecologists and conservation biologists working with birds, practitioners, wildlife and conservation managers. Moreover, this book is of interest to a large audience, in particular those naturalists and bird enthusiast people who collect books on the natural history of animals.