Climate change, deforestation, the pet trade, and bushmeat hunting are increasingly taking their toll on wild bird populations around the world and have already led to a significant decline in the numbers of many species in the wild – some are now critically endangered or on the verge of extinction. One tool for preserving certain species, at least in captivity, is targeted breeding. However, this cannot be about standardized “ornamental bird breeding,” as has been propagated for decades by certain clubs and associations. Rather, it is about professional conservation breeding, for which this book provides the necessary foundation. For such conservation breeding projects, the wild bird populations still in captivity must be located, brought together, and managed in studbooks. This requires close cooperation between zookeepers, veterinarians, geneticists, museum ornithologists, and private practitioners. A total of 33 such experts from a variety of professions have been enlisted as authors for this book, and in the first part they provide the theoretical foundations for targeted conservation breeding projects. In the second part, all wild bird species relevant for captivity are discussed with regard to appropriate husbandry methods, their nutritional requirements, and breeding opportunities and problems.

Werner Lantermann, born 1956, a social scientist by education, he works with tropical birds, especially parrots, toucans and starlings, since 1976. He has made study trips to Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. His extensive list of ornithological publications includes approximately 600 journal articles and 18 books to date, some of which have been translated into several languages. In 2001 he received, together with Dr Herbert Schlenker (Quito, Ecuador), the Steinbacher Prize awarded by the magazine ‘Gefiederte Welt’ for his paper on toucan husbandry in Ecuador.

Jörg Asmus, born in 1966, has been committed to species conservation for 30 years and kept parrots, gallinaceous birds, starlings and waxbills himself. During this time, he has been involved in species conservation projects in collaboration with zoological institutions. As part of conservation breeding projects, he has repeatedly engaged in interdisciplinary research and studied population characteristics by comparing museum specimens and living birds. He has received several awards for his systematic taxonomic work, including the prestigious Maria Koepcke Prize from the German Ornithological Society (DO-G) in 2015. He has published 7 books and over 400 journal articles to date. He is a member of the IUCN SSC Bird Red List Authority and IUCN SSC Europe. In recent years, he has devoted himself increasingly to wild bird photography. His award-winning works have been exhibited in several European countries.