Falcon’s migration tracked

The mystery of the migration of the Eleanora's Falcon has been unravelled for the first time by a research team using satellite tracking to map its route between Europe and Africa.

Their findings, published recently in the journal Zoological Studies, show that the bird flies more than 9,500 kilometres across the African continent from the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean to the island of Madagascar. Other secrets now revealed include that fact that these falcons migrate by both day and night, and cross supposed ecological barriers such as the Sahara Desert.

Lees meer: Birdwatch

Birds Line Nests with Natural Antibacterials

Some birds add bits of aromatic plants, such as lavender, mint, or yarrow, to their nests. The garlands serve not as air fresheners or décor, but rather, it is thought, as pesticides against such parasites as fleas and blowfly larvae, which commonly vex chicks. Yet various experiments have failed to confirm that quite reasonable idea. Now Adèle Mennerat, her former graduate adviser Marcel M. Lambrechts of the National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier, France, and several colleagues say scientists may have been off track—bacteria could be the targeted affliction.

Lees meer: LiveScience

Black Rat Does Not Bother Mediterranean Seabirds

Human activities have meant invasive species have been able to populate parts of the world to which they are not native and alter biodiversity there over thousands of years. Now, an international team of scientists has studied the impact of the black rat on bird populations on Mediterranean islands. Despite the rat's environmental impact, only the tiny European storm petrel has been affected over time by its enforced cohabitation with the rat.

A European team has studied around 300 islands in the western Mediterranean, and has confirmed that the presence of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has an effect on the number of marine birds there. Mass colonisation by rats is damaging to the native biota of islands, leading to a 68% risk of extinction for procellariiforme seabirds (tube-nosed birds with webbed feet of three to four toes).

Lees meer: ScienceDaily

Lowly females pick mediocre mates

Low-quality females prefer low-quality males, at least in the avian world.

This is according to research published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, testing female zebra finches' taste in males.

As adults, the low-quality females showed a preference for the songs of males of the same quality, and for the male birds themselves.

Evolutionary biologists previously thought that females would always opt for the best male available.

Lees meer: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment

Male songbirds provide indirect parental care by guarding females during incubation

Auteurs: Bradley C. Fedy, Thomas E. Martin
Bron: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY, Volume 20, Number 5 p. 1034-1038
Abstract: Across many taxa, guarding of fertile mates is a widespread tactic that enhances paternity assurance. However, guarding of mates can also occur during the nonfertile period, and the fitness benefits of this behavior are unclear. Male songbirds, for example, sometimes guard nonfertile females during foraging recesses from incubation. We hypothesized that guarding postreproductive mates may have important, but unrecognized, benefits by enhancing female foraging efficiency, thereby increasing time spent incubating eggs. We tested the hypothesis in 2 songbird species by examining female behavior during natural and experimentally induced absences of males. Male absence caused increased vigilance in foraging females that decreased their efficiency and resulted in less time spent incubating eggs. Male guarding of nonfertile females can thus provide a previously unrecognized form of indirect parental care.

Breeding systems, climate, and the evolution of migration in shorebirds

Auteurs: Gabriel E. García-Peña, Gavin H. Thomas, John D. Reynolds, Tamás Székely
Bron: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY 2009 20(5):1026-1033; doi:10.1093/beheco/arp093
Abstract: Migratory behavior incurs energetic costs that may influence the time
and energy available for reproduction including territory
establishment, courtship, pair formation, incubation, and brood care.
Conversely pair formation and parental care may leave less time and
energy available for migration and other nonbreeding behaviors.
Therefore, natural selection favoring migratory behavior may influence
breeding system evolution and vice versa. We used phylogenetic
comparative methods to investigate relationships between migration
distance and the wide diversity of breeding systems in shorebirds
(sandpipers, plovers and allies). Consistent with previous studies, we
show that long-distance migration is associated with reduced male care
across shorebird species. We then use directional phylogenetic analyses
to test whether migration distances have tended to increase or decrease
over time and whether such evolutionary changes have preceded or
followed changes in parental care. We show that evolutionary
transitions from short-distance migration to long-distance migration
have coevolved with changes from full biparental care to reduced male
care. Furthermore, our directional analyses suggest that increments in
migration distance are more likely to have preceded reductions in male
care than vice versa. We also show that male polygamy is associated
with northern breeding latitudes when the nonbreeding latitude is
controlled statistically. Although this suggests that mating systems,
parental care, and migration have more complex relationships than
previously thought, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that
migration influences breeding system evolution.

Albatross Camera Reveals Fascinating Feeding Interaction With Killer Whale

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey, National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, and Hokkaido University, Japan, have recorded the first observations of how albatrosses feed alongside marine mammals at sea.

A miniature digital camera was attached to the backs of four black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys) breeding at colonies on Bird Island, South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. Results are published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS ONE from the Public Library of Science.

Lees meer: ScienceDaily
Lees meer: PLoS One