Ecological Society Blackwell Science LtdLarge-scale dynamics in colonization and extinction for breeding birds in Britain

1. A number of generalizations have been made as to the effects of the area of occu-pancy, population size, dispersal ability and body size of species on their relative rates of local colonization and extinction. 2. Here, data on the breeding bird assemblage of Britain are used to test these gener-alizations. The complete geographical ranges of British birds have been censused twice, in the periods 1968–72 and 1988–91, allowing rates of colonization and extinction between these periods to be estimated. 3. The local colonization dynamics of species are influenced independently by their range sizes and the dispersal abilities of adult birds: species with smaller range sizes and larger dispersal distances were more likely to have colonized new areas between the two census periods. 4. The local extinction dynamics of species are influenced independently by their popu-lation sizes and body masses: species with smaller population sizes and body sizes were more likely to have gone extinct from areas inhabited in the first census period. 5. These results remain when controlling for the effects of phylogenetic relatedness. 6. These analyses uphold many commonly held generalizations about the correlates of local colonization and extinction, and suggest that the long-term evolutionary history of these bird species has influenced their potential to respond to current ecological conditions