Shorebirds experience high rates of nest predation due to their ground-nesting, leading to diverse antipredator behaviors to mitigate this risk. Accurate predator recognition enables birds to adjust t...

Among several threats, the food availability at stopover and wintering sites contributes to the decline of shorebird species. It is the case in the Pacific region, where the overwater journey for the ...

Movements throughout the annual cycle evolved as an adaptation to seasonality across different bird species with a continuum of migration strategies and behaviours at the non-breeding range. Swifts ar...

Understanding the dietary ecology of migratory raptors is critical in trophic ecology, especially under accelerating environmental change that alters prey availability. This study investigates the fee...

Foraging habitat preferences and migration route selection in avian migrants may correlate with the accumulation of energy stores and their expenditure, which in turn influence migrants’ ability to co...

The White-shouldered Antshrike (Thamnophilus aethiops) is a widespread Amazonian suboscine bird with ten plumage-based subspecies showing deep mitochondrial genetic divergence. Variation in vocalizati...

Assortative mating occurs when individuals with similar phenotypes mate together more often than by chance and can contribute to increases in homozygosity, linkage disequilibrium between loci, and pre...

Many seabirds adjust migratory movements to interannual oceanic variability, tracking food resources, and potentially avoiding competition. This study examines the at-sea ecological niches of two peng...

Bill colouration is a highly variable trait with the potential to rapidly change over time. We observed strong interindividual and seasonal variation in the bill colour of captive female House Sparrow...

Climatic changes are causing general ecosystem changes and species-specific range shifts. To increase our understanding of climate change effects on avian trends and range shifts, this study investigates long-term breeding bird population trends in the pristine Høstemark Forest, Denmark, from 1991 to 2024, in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss. Using territory mapping data from unmanaged pristine forest and national point count data, we examined whether climate-group classifications (leading-edge, neutral, trailing-edge) predict population trends and how a high-quality habitat buffers against climate-driven shifts. Results show significant declines in total bird territories since 1991, while forest-specific bird species abundance remained stable in the Høstemark Forest. Trailing-edge species declined both locally and nationally, while leading-edge species increased locally but not significantly at the national level. Climate-neutral species exhibited local declines despite stable national trends. Species turnover rate appeared to occur more rapidly in the Høstemark Forest compared to the national scale, with both losses of trailing-edge species and gains in leading-edge species. However, despite its ecological quality and stability, the Høstemark Forest experienced a decline in overall bird abundance, suggesting that even pristine habitats can be vulnerable to biodiversity loss, potentially driven by climate change, isolation, and edge effects.

Migratory birds often traverse thousands of kilometers, yet some individuals may abandon migration and form sedentary populations—a process termed ‘migratory drop-off’. A key limitation in studying this phenomenon is the inability to distinguish between individuals from different populations, particularly when they share part of their range. We aimed to solve this problem for the Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis), a species with both migratory and sedentary breeding populations along its flyway. We developed a genetic tool aimed at distinguishing individuals from migratory and sedentary populations. Using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we assigned geese wintering in the Netherlands to their breeding populations (i.e., the Netherlands and Russia). While complete assignment accuracy is likely unachievable—with potentially up to 20% of individuals misassigned due to ongoing gene flow and limited genetic differentiation—our results suggest that this error can be managed by focusing on high-confidence assignments or by studying traits with pronounced ecological or physiological differences. In the end, we refined a dataset of over 400,000 SNPs to approximately 1000 candidate markers for potential use in a diagnostic tool. Integrating these genetic markers with other methods, such as stable isotopes or morphological traits, may enhance assignment accuracy and offer novel insights into the ecological and evolutionary consequences of migratory drop-off.

Social media and networking platforms are growing in their usefulness in research through citizen science. We used diverse online data sources and methods to generate insight into the distribution, ecological interactions and any additional information on the Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and Lanner Falcons (F. biarmicus) in South Africa. We used social media, specifically Facebook®, eBird®, and iNaturalist®, to collect posts/observations, images and any additional information on the two falcon species in South Africa. We collected and analysed 5070 images from 2702 observations/posts in South Africa that were sourced from social media up to the 31st of August 2024. Both falcons were observed/posted in all nine provinces of South Africa. Peregrine Falcons were observed 1154 times (2404 images), whilst Lanner Falcons were observed 1548 times (2666 images) in all 9 provinces of South Africa. After 2017, there was a significant rise in posts/observations for both falcon species. Lanner Falcons were observed/posted more in most provinces, except Gauteng and the Western Cape, where Peregrine Falcons dominated the observations/posts. The Western Cape Province dominated image observations and posts/observations for the Peregrine Falcon, whilst the Northern Cape Province was notable for the Lanner Falcon. The differences in images and post/observation contributions between Peregrine Falcons and Lanner Falcons highlighted varying levels of visibility and engagement for reporting sightings amongst the different species, as well as behaviours of the two species. Future research can focus on optimising data collection strategies across multiple platforms to ensure citizen scientists can effectively contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of these species of falcons in South Africa.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker and the Middle Spotted Woodpecker during the breeding season in the Białowieża National Park forage mainly on the same tree species: European hornbeam, small-leaved lime, pedunculate oak and Norway maple. Therefore, it seems that they should forage in different sites on a given tree species or use different foraging techniques to minimize competition for food. Our research aimed to find out if this is in fact the case. Foraging observations of woodpeckers were carried out between 1999 and 2011 in April, May, and June. We found no differences between both woodpecker species in the choice of foraging sites on lime, hornbeam, and maple trees. In contrast, a significant difference was observed for oak trees, where the Middle Spotted Woodpecker foraged mainly on trunks, whereas the Great Spotted Woodpecker mostly on branches. Significant differences in the frequency of foraging techniques between the two woodpecker species were observed for lime, hornbeam, and oak, whereas no such differences were found in the case of maple. The differences in the foraging techniques of the woodpecker species on individual tree species is a factor that minimizes competition for food between them, while allowing them to forage at sites with similar parameters. The exception is oak, where foraging sites are spatially separated. This finding, and, at the same time, the difference in foraging techniques between the two species of woodpeckers, may suggest that oaks are an important source of food resources for which individuals of both species compete.