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Simple Summary: The great cormorant has become a model taxon in the study of the ecology and ecotoxicology of fish-eating species. In this study, we used 157 adult and 222 juvenile dead individuals sexed by dissection to provide a method of sexing this species using external measurements. Males were larger than females in all linear body measurements, but there were no significant differences between adults and juveniles. Thus, in further analyses data on juveniles and adults within a sex was combined. The discriminant equations provided, with wing length and bill length, provided high accuracy, with 6.2% of individuals misclassified. The method presented here makes it possible to account for sex-specific patterns in ecological studies of the great cormorant and may be applied to data collected in the past. The possibility of sex identification of birds has substantial importance for studies on different aspects of bird ecology and behaviour. Using discriminant functions is becoming increasingly popular in studies of bird species that are monomorphic in plumage characteristics because they are cheap, hardly invasive and may be applied to data collected in the past. In this paper, we provide a discriminant function to sex great cormorants using external measurements. Males were larger than females in all linear body measurements, but there were no significant differences between adults and juveniles. Thus, data on juveniles and adults within a sex was combined. Discriminant equations with the most commonly used linear measurements, wing length and bill length, were provided. If identifying birds with discriminant function values D2 < −1.256 as females and those with D2 > 0.916 as males, 99% of birds will be correctly sexed. The method presented here makes it possible to account for sex-specific patterns in ecological studies of the great cormorant and may be applied to data collected in the past. The cross-application of discriminant functions developed for other populations of the great cormorant produces a 5.4% and 7.5% misclassification rate for birds from northern Poland using discriminant equations developed for populations in Greece and the Netherlands, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of science and technology, the state attaches great importance to industry, and the research on materials by researchers is getting more and more in-depth. The steel-wood structure is one of the material structures that has been focused on. The steel-timber composite (STC) structure has the characteristics of good mechanical performance, sustainable attributes, and lightweight. For the steel-timber structure with reinforced layer, its mechanical performance is better, stronger, and more durable. Particle algorithm (PSO for short) is an intelligent search algorithm derived from simulating the foraging behavior of birds. The PSO algorithm uses the information exchange ability of the population to search for the problem to obtain the optimal solution. The purpose of this paper is to study the mechanical properties of steel-timber structural systems with reinforced layers. In this paper, an improved PSO algorithm is proposed, and the algorithm model is used to conduct static tests on steel-timber structures with reinforced layers. The experimental results in this paper show for A and B two different steel-timber specimens with reinforced layers. When the number of reinforced layers of the A specimen is twice that of the B specimen, the stagnation amplitude of the B specimen is twice that of the A specimen. The cumulative energy consumption of A will be relatively more, in every 1 mm of displacement. A specimen is 4.6 kN·mm on average than B specimen, and the damping coefficient of A specimen is 0.028 larger than that of B specimen. This shows that for specimens with more reinforced layers, the higher the ultimate fatigue strength, the stronger the bearing capacity and the better the stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nest boxes have been used as artificial cavities for decades to attract cavity-nesting birds that rely on such structures to roost and breed. Nest boxes aid research efforts to understand the biology and behaviour of birds and may increase breeding success, thereby contributing to the conservation of a species. The type and dimension of nest boxes and the survey design used in the tropics vary, depending on the targeted species. This paper reviewed 30 published in-situ works using nest boxes and their survey design in Malaysia. Most studies were done on Barn Owls (Tyto alba javanica) (25), followed by hornbills (5), where they were conducted in oil palm plantations (50%), rice fields (20%), forest habitats (16.7%), urban landscapes (10%), and different habitat matrices (3.3%). Attempts to enhance/manage the local populations were the main research purpose. Unlike studies from other tropical countries, studies involving nest boxes in Malaysia are still in their infancy. This review suggests future research focus on forest species, especially those requiring immediate conservation attention, and delineate parameters highlighted in published works to counter literature inconsistency. Such research involving nest boxes may also be further expanded to the study and/or conserve other interconnected fauna species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We report on the occurrence of parasitic quill mites of the family Syringophilidae on the well-known avian group birds-of-paradise. Our investigation resulted in the discovery of two new species of mites belonging to the subfamily Picobiinae, which has never before been recorded on birds-of-paradise. We hypothesise that the interspecific sexual behaviour of paradisaeids, which involves copulation with non-closely related host species, may have facilitated the spread of syringophilid mites between different and unrelated host species. These findings highlight the potential role of sexual behaviour in the distribution and transmission of parasitic quill mites among avian hosts. While birds-of-paradise (Passeriformes: Paradisaeidae) are a well-known group of birds, our understanding of their parasites is still limited. This study reports on parasitic quill mites of the subfamily Picobiinae (Acariformes: Syringophilidae), which have never before been recorded on this group of birds. The mite specimens presented in this paper were collected from birds-of-paradise that had been captured in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia in the years 1910–1911 and are now deposited in the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, Germany. Two syringophilid species are described as new to science: (i) Picobia frankei sp. n. from the magnificent riflebird Lophorina magnifica, the glossy-mantled manucode Manucodia ater, and the crinkle-collared manucode Manucodia chalybatus, and (ii) Gunabopicobia garylarsoni sp. n. from the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise Seleucidis melanoleucus and the lesser bird-of-paradise Paradisaea minor. We hypothesise that the presence of both picobiine species on phylogenetically unrelated paradisaeids may be caused by the sexual behaviour of these birds, where interspecific copulations may play a role in the switching of parasites between non-closely related host species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black kites of the nominal subspecies Milvus migrans migrans breed in Europe and winter regularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. As a new phenomenon, black kites with morphological characteristics of the subspecies Milvus migrans lineatus are observed in Europe. Based on observations of black kites in winter 2020/2021 summarized in this paper, based on other recent reports about wintering black kites in Europe and based on juvenile black kite tagged on Crete and tracked for two years, we conclude that hundreds to thousands of black kites are now regularly wintering in south of Europe, and in smaller numbers in other parts of Europe as well as in northern Africa. The growing number of wintering black kites in Europe is apparently caused by members of the population from a hybrid zone between M. m. migrans and M. m. lineatus breeding east of the Urals, i.e. from the area of the European part of Russia. This is consistent with the hypothesis of the spreading of M. m. lineatus and a subsequent hybridization zone between M. m. migrans and M. m. lineatus in a westerly direction from Siberia across continental Europe. Moreover, two black kites found dead on Crete were attributed to M. m. lineatus and M. m. migrans by cytochrome B gene sequence analyses. The juvenile black kite with lineatus features tagged on Crete and telemetrically tracked during the next two years moved to the south-western part of Russia during the next two summers, but did not breed. It spent the following two winters at the same landfill in south-western Turkey. It seems that an adaptation to food sources provided by municipal waste landfills is important for black kites wintering in Europe, the Middle East and Morocco. Highlights • Hundreds to thousands of black kites are now regularly wintering in Europe. • The growing number of wintering black kites is caused by birds from a hybrid zone between Milvus migrans migrans and M. m. lineatus in eastern Europe. • Municipal waste landfills are important as food sources for black kites wintering in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pigeon-Inspired optimization (PIO) algorithm is a novel intelligent optimization algorithm inspired by birds' behavior as their travel. This; behavior modeled to be used for solving many optimization problems in different fields. However; it always suffers from unstable behavior when used with nonlinear; time-varying systems. In; this paper, this algorithm is adapted to calculate the optimum controller gains for roll and pitch channels in a guided tactical missile. The; vehicle model is presented in a nonlinear; form and then shown in a linearized form for the sake of an autopilot design. The PIO; algorithm is supported and accompanied by an adaptive algorithm to determine the initial states and constraints for the PIO algorithm to enhance the behavior of the optimization algorithm to speed up the convergence rate to reach an optimum and feasible solution. Also; an estimation function is incorporated to estimate model parameters variation such as dynamic pressure, stability derivatives, and mass properties. Meanwhile; a comparative analysis is carried out with original PIO and particle swarm optimization algorithms, utilizing a non-linear; model with the presence of noise source and disturbance to ensure the ability of the algorithm to make the autopilot robust and stable against several sources of uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interspecific brood or nest parasitism is a relatively common breeding behavior in birds. Through this reproductive tactic, brood-parasites avoid the costs associated with raising and maintaining chicks by laying their eggs in the nests of the host species in which they are specialized. The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) follows this brood parasite strategy. Female cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species, mimicking egg shape, size, and color of the host species. In this paper we report the first documented case of parasitism of tawny pipit nests by the common cuckoo in Spanish steppe habitats, where no record of parasitism on this species has been reported to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent manufacturing is an important part of Industry 4.0; artificial intelligence technology is a necessary means to realize intelligent manufacturing. This requires the exploration of pattern recognition, computer vision, intelligent optimization, and other related technologies. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is an optimization algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of birds. PSO was an intelligent technology and an efficient optimization algorithm verified by a lot of research and experiments. In this paper, the traditional PSO algorithm is compared with genetic algorithms (GA) to illustrate the performance of the traditional PSO algorithm. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional PSO algorithm, the traditional PSO algorithm is improved through introducing into the sharing information mechanism and the competition strategy, called information sharing based PSO (IPSO). The novel algorithm IPSO was the rapid convergence speed similar to the traditional PSO and enhanced the global search capability. Our experimental results show that IPSO has better performance than the traditional PSO and the GA algorithm on benchmark functions, especially for difficult functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper pertains to the habitats of the Grey Francolin Francolinus pondicerianus with specific reference to populations, habitat type, vegetation, foraging, impact of human dwellings, and probable threats to populations in 20 villages covering four northern districts of Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 252 individuals were enumerated. During the non-breeding season, birds move in small groups of 2–6. Of four habitats identified, the maximum number of 143 birds was observed foraging in grasslands, while 61 were seen in dry fallow agricultural lands, 37 in dry lakes/canals, and 11 in harvested fields. No significant association was observed between habitat type and bird behaviour. They feed on termites and spilled paddy grains. Males have repeated loud calls and fight with each other. Four species of tall grasses, six of stunted trees and two shrubs were identified to provide bird habitat. Birds preferred to live away from human dwellings, with 193 found 1,000 m away from settlements. The study area continues to be a suitable habitat for Grey Francolin populations, hence this habitat needs protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Animal welfare measures have been designed to improve the health and environmental conditions of animals living under human control, for whatever reason. Welfare regulations have evolved also in line with new research insights into the cognitive, affective, and physiological domain of birds, as this paper discusses. This paper casts a critical eye on areas that Animal Welfare regulations have not reached at all, have not gone far enough, or are not regulated or supervised. It identifies the plight of birds living in captivity or being studied in the field, which either by neglect, ignorance, or design are subject to practices and procedures that may not meet basic welfare standards. The paper discusses some profound contradictions in the way we think about birds and their plight in today's world: marked for extinction on one hand and highly admired as pets on the other; damaging fieldwork on one hand and the aims of conservation on the other. It highlights some common and distressing examples of poor welfare in birds. It also offers some solutions involving simple legislative changes and ways to eliminate some unacceptably low ethical standards in the handling and management of birds. This paper discusses paradoxes in our relationship to and treatment of birds in captive and conservation contexts. The paper identifies modern and new challenges that arise from declining bird numbers worldwide. Such challenges have partly changed zoos into providers of insurance populations specifically for species at risk of extinction. They have also accelerated fieldwork projects, but by using advanced technological tools and in increasing numbers, contradictorily, they may cause serious harm to the very birds studied for conservation purposes. In practice, very few avian species have any notable protection or guarantee of good treatment. The paper first deals with shortcomings of identifying problematic avian behavior in captive birds. It then brings together specific cases of field studies and captive breeding for conservation in which major welfare deficits are identified. Indeed, the paper argues that avian welfare is now an urgent task. This is not just because of declining bird numbers but because of investment in new technologies in field studies that may have introduced additional stressors and put at risk bird survival. While the paper documents a substantial number of peer-reviewed papers criticizing practices counter to modern welfare standards, they have by and large not led to changes in some practices. Some solutions are suggested that could be readily implemented and, to my knowledge, have never been considered under a welfare model before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel surrogate-assisted multi-objective nutcracker optimization algorithm. This algorithm is built upon the recently proposed nutcracker optimization algorithm, drawing inspiration from the behaviours observed in Clark's nutcrackers. The algorithm is developed based on two distinct behaviours exhibited by these birds. To comprehensively evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, a dual-pronged approach is adopted. On the one hand, a set of artificial test problems is employed to scrutinize the algorithm's capabilities, while on the other hand, a set of real-world problems is considered to assess its practical efficacy. The results of the proposed algorithm are evaluated in comparison to existing baseline algorithms and state-of-the-art algorithms, using well-recognized performance metrics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The obtained results provide convincing evidence of the performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Modern agriculture has undoubtedly led to increasing wildlife-human conflicts, notably concerning bird damage in productive and attractive crops during some parts of the annual cycle. This issue requires utmost attention for sedentary birds that may impact agricultural crops at any stage of their annual life cycle. Reducing bird-human conflicts requires a better understanding of the relationship between bird foraging activity and the characteristics of agricultural areas, notably with respect to changes in food-resource availability and crop sensitivity across the year. Methods: We explored how GPS-tagged adult male western jackdaws– sedentary corvids– utilize agricultural areas throughout their annual cycle, in a context of crop depredation. More precisely, we described their daily occurrence distribution and the extent of habitat use and selection consistency with respect to landscape composition across time. Results: Jackdaws moved in the close agricultural surroundings of their urban nesting place over the year (< 2.5 km from the nest, on average). Daily occurrence distributions were restricted (< 2.2 km2), relatively centered on the nesting locality (distance between the daily occurrence centroid and the nest < 0.9 km), and rather spatially stable during each annual life-cycle period (overlap range: 63.4–76.1%). Their foraging patterns highlighted that they fed mainly in grasslands all year round, and foraged complementarily and opportunistically in maize (during sowing– coinciding with the first stages of the birds' breeding period) and cereal crops (during harvesting– their post-fledging period). Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the very limited space use by breeding male jackdaws which foraged preferentially in grasslands. We call for future investigations in other agricultural contexts and also considering non-breeders for extrapolation purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird sex chromosomes play a unique role in sex-determination, and affect the sexual morphology and behavior of bird species. Core waterbirds, a major clade of birds, share the common characteristics of being sexually monomorphic and having lower levels of inter-sexual conflict, yet their sex chromosome evolution remains poorly understood. Here, by we analyse of a chromosome-level assembly of a female crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), a typical core waterbird. We identify neo-sex chromosomes resulting from fusion of microchromosomes with ancient sex chromosomes. These fusion events likely occurred following the divergence of Threskiornithidae and Ardeidae. The neo-W chromosome of the crested ibis exhibits the characteristics of slow degradation, which is reflected in its retention of abundant gametologous genes. Neo-W chromosome genes display an apparent ovary-biased gene expression, which is largely driven by genes that are retained on the crested ibis W chromosome but lost in other bird species. These results provide new insights into the evolutionary history and expression patterns for the sex chromosomes of bird species. The evolutionary trajectory of avian sex chromosomes may be more intricate than previously understood. In this study, sequencing and analysis of the neo-sex chromosomes and genome of the Crested Ibis suggests a multidirectional evolution of sex chromosomes in core waterbirds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shorebirds are iconic examples of food resource partitioning through use of contrasted morphological structures to acquire food. Differences in beak lengths and shapes allow species catching their food at various sediment depths. Contrasted leg lengths allow species foraging at distinct water depths. Despite these morphological differences, shorebirds use a small number of stereotyped behaviors for food acquisition. We classify these behaviors by analyzing video sequences of ca. two dozen species of Western Palearctic shorebirds, during migration or wintering. We suggest disassembling food acquisition in three successive stages: foraging, feeding, and swallowing. The foraging stage regroups the locomotion behaviors associated to food detection, and the behaviors used during food capture. The feeding stage encompasses the handling behaviors used to kill or stun the prey and to extract its edible parts, and the behaviors used to transport the prey from the distal part of the beak to the bird’s pharynx. In the swallowing stage, the edible parts of the prey enter the pharynx. We show that three of these behaviors (locomotion, capture and transport) are made up of stereotypical, mutually exclusive components, and can be considered as performances. Each of our study species use one or maximum two components of these three performances. Overall, our study provides insights on interspecific variation in shorebird food acquisition behaviors that we put in a phylogenetic perspective. We confirm the long-standing hypothesis that pecking is the plesiomorphic behavior of food capture, and we show that those locomotion and transport behaviors associated with pecking differ from those associated with derived capture behaviors, leading to a syndrome of food acquisition behaviors in shorebirds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemoreception – the ability to smell and taste – is an essential sensory modality of most animals. The number and type of chemical stimuli that animals can perceive depends primarily on the diversity of chemoreceptors they possess and express. In vertebrates, six families of G protein-coupled receptors form the core of their chemosensory system, the olfactory/pheromone receptor gene families OR, TAAR, V1R and V2R, and the taste receptors T1R and T2R. Here, we study the vertebrate chemoreceptor gene repertoire and its evolutionary history. Through the examination of 1,527 vertebrate genomes, we uncover substantial differences in the number and composition of chemoreceptors across vertebrates. We show that the chemoreceptor gene families are co-evolving, highly dynamic, and characterized by lineage-specific expansions (for example, OR in tetrapods; TAAR, T1R in teleosts; V1R in mammals; V2R, T2R in amphibians) and losses. Overall, amphibians, followed by mammals, are the vertebrate clades with the largest chemoreceptor repertoires. While marine tetrapods feature a convergent reduction of chemoreceptor numbers, the number of OR genes correlates with habitat in mammals and birds and with migratory behavior in birds, and the taste receptor repertoire correlates with diet in mammals and with aquatic environment in fish. Chemoreception - the ability to smell and taste - relies on diverse receptor genes. Examining 1,527 vertebrate genomes, this study explores the dynamic evolution, lineage-specific expansions and losses of chemoreceptor genes as well as ecological and morphological factors associated with these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses paradoxes in our relationship to and treatment of birds in captive and conservation contexts. The paper identifies modern and new challenges that arise from declining bird numbers worldwide. Such challenges have partly changed zoos into providers of insurance populations specifically for species at risk of extinction. They have also accelerated fieldwork projects, but by using advanced technological tools and in increasing numbers, contradictorily, they may cause serious harm to the very birds studied for conservation purposes. In practice, very few avian species have any notable protection or guarantee of good treatment. The paper first deals with shortcomings of identifying problematic avian behavior in captive birds. It then brings together specific cases of field studies and captive breeding for conservation in which major welfare deficits are identified. Indeed, the paper argues that avian welfare is now an urgent task. This is not just because of declining bird numbers but because of investment in new technologies in field studies that may have introduced additional stressors and put at risk bird survival. While the paper documents a substantial number of peer-reviewed papers criticizing practices counter to modern welfare standards, they have by and large not led to changes in some practices. Some solutions are suggested that could be readily implemented and, to my knowledge, have never been considered under a welfare model before.

ABSTRACT Most of the challenges of poultry production can be addressed by using smart technology, electronic devices, and operations-controlling gadgets in an organized, efficient, and easy way. Considering the reality that the prospects of using smart technologies in the poultry industry far outweigh its problems or challenges, this study reviews an impact analysis for the adoption and implementation of these technologies in poultry management systems. Drawing from the results of research studies, observations, intuition, and secondary data, this review paper stresses that smart technology poultry management is viable with several comparative advantages over the traditional poultry management system. The use of artificial intelligence in poultry production had shown multiple benefits such as reducing cost per unit production, reducing labor involvement, stress-free environment for birds' betterment, decreasing multiple losses and damages, etc. resulting in increased productivity, profitability, and efficiency of poultry, decision-making and control and the welfare/behavior of birds on the farm. Effective use of smart technologies in the poultry industry would usher in lots of prospects, revolution, and innovation in the poultry sector and hence will help to fulfil animal protein demand in the current recent scarcity era. However, until now this technology is not been fully exploited in developing countries as there is limited applicability and automatic operations. Therefore, it is recommended that sensor technology, smart networks, the internet of things and analysis tools, and big data analysis leading to a culture of rapid response to information should be imbibed in most poultry operations. Moreover, data protection rules and regulations should be improved to make fully operational and continuously efficient poultry production operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated assessment of broiler chicken welfare poses particular problems due to the large numbers of birds involved and the variety of different welfare measures that have been proposed. Active (sustained, defect-free) walking is both a universally agreed measure of bird health and a behavior that can be recognized by existing technology. This makes active walking an ideal starting point for automated assessment of chicken welfare at both individual and flock level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the discovery and observation of a Superb Lyrebird nest in Black Range, New South Wales, Australia. The author, Matthew Higgins, used a trail camera to capture the activities of the female Lyrebird as she built the nest, incubated the egg, and raised the chick. The article provides information about the nest construction, the presence of other animals in the area, and the unfortunate loss of the egg due to the disturbance caused by a Sugar Glider. The author acknowledges the natural behavior of the Sugar Glider and expresses uncertainty about the female Lyrebird's future breeding attempts. [Extracted from the article]

Cooperative breeding is a sophisticated altruistic social behavior that helps social animals to adapt to harsh environments. The Tibetan ground tit, Pseudopodoces humilis , is a high-altitude bird endemic to the Tibetan plateau. Recently, it has become an exciting system for studying the evolution of facultative cooperative breeding. To test for molecular adaptations associated with cooperative breeding, we resequenced the whole genome of ground tits from 6 wild populations that display remarkable variation in the frequency of cooperative breeding. Population structure analyses showed that the 6 populations were divided into 4 lineages, which is congruent with the major geographical distribution of the sampling sites. Using genome-wide selective sweep analysis, we identified putative positively selected genes (PSGs) in groups of tits that displayed high and low cooperative breeding rates. The total number of PSGs varied from 146 to 722 in high cooperative breeding rate populations, and from 272 to 752 in low cooperative breeding rate populations. Functional enrichment analysis of these PSGs identified several significantly enriched ontologies related to oxytocin signaling, estrogen signaling, and insulin secretion. PSGs involved in these functional ontologies suggest that molecular adaptations in hormonal regulation may have played important roles in shaping the evolution of cooperative breeding in the ground tit. Taken together, our study provides candidate genes and functional ontologies involved in molecular adaptations associated with cooperative breeding in Tibetan ground tits, and calls for a better understanding of the genetic roles in the evolution of cooperative breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pose estimation plays a crucial role in recognizing and analyzing the postures, actions, and movements of humans and animals using computer vision and machine learning techniques. However, bird pose estimation encounters specific challenges, including bird diversity, posture variation, and the fine granularity of posture. To overcome these challenges, we propose VHR-BirdPose, a method that combines Vision Transformer (ViT) and Deep High-Resolution Network (HRNet) with an attention mechanism. VHR-BirdPose effectively extracts features using Vision Transformer's self-attention mechanism, which captures global dependencies in the images and allows for better capturing of pose details and changes. The attention mechanism is employed to enhance the focus on bird keypoints, improving the accuracy of pose estimation. By combining HRNet with Vision Transformer, our model can extract multi-scale features while maintaining high-resolution details and incorporating richer semantic information through the attention mechanism. This integration of HRNet and Vision Transformer leverages the advantages of both models, resulting in accurate and robust bird pose estimation. We conducted extensive experiments on the Animal Kingdom dataset to evaluate the performance of VHR-BirdPose. The results demonstrate that our proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance in bird pose estimation. VHR-BirdPose based on bird images is of great significance for the advancement of bird behaviors, ecological understanding, and the protection of bird populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mosquitoes are extremely important vectors that transmit zoonotic West Nile virus (WNV) globally, resulting in significant outbreaks in birds, humans, and mammals. The abundance of mosquito vectors combined with the migratory flying behaviour of wild birds across the globe has exacerbated the dynamics of WNV infection. Depth understanding of the WNV infection requires a comprehensive understanding of the character of the vector in terms of their taxonomy, morphology, biology, behaviours, preferences, and factors that promote their breeding. Most susceptible animals and humans may experience serious neurological illnesses such as encephalitis. Little is known about the susceptibility of mosquitoes to WNV infection. This review provides insightful knowledge about the characteristics of mosquitoes that carry WNV and their susceptibility to WNV infection. The context of mosquito’s involvement in WNV transmission is demonstrated through space and time from the 1950’s until to date. The historical timeline of WNV transmission strength was significantly intensified via the complex interactions between vector, virus, and environment. Such knowledge will provide valuable insights into vector control intervention mitigation strategies, especially in tropical climate countries like Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medial preoptic area (mPOA) regulates the probability and intensity of singing behavior in birds. Polzin and colleagues examined the molecular changes in the mPOA that were associated with gregarious song in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). High-throughput transcriptome analyses identified glutamate and dopamine pathways were highly enriched with gregarious song. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study assessed the effect of litter materials (paddy husk and sawdust) and elevated platform enrichment on welfare (foot pad dermatitis (FPD), hock burns, plumage cleanliness, behaviours, litter quality, and body weight of the broiler chickens living in the cooling pad area of a closed house. A total of 320 Indian River broiler chicks were randomly allocated to four treatments: paddy husk with an elevated platform, paddy husk with no elevated platform, sawdust with an elevated platform, and sawdust with no elevated platform with four replicates for each treatment (n=20). Behaviour of the birds was assessed by scan sampling methods. Welfare indicators were assessed by using a scoring system. Data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model and Kruskal-Wallis tests. There was no effect of litter material on the prevalence of FPD (P>0.05). Elevated platforms reduced the severity of FPD in the birds in both litters (P<0.05). The birds reared in sawdust regardless of elevated platforms, showed higher (P<0.05) scores for hock burns. Litter quality was lower in sawdust, irrespective of the elevated platforms (P<0.05). There was no effect of the elevated platform on litter quality, hock burns, plumage cleanliness, and behaviours of the birds. A higher frequency of dust bathing was observed in paddy husks (P=0.014). Litter material or elevated platform did not affect body weight of the birds. Results revealed that the provision of elevated platforms and paddy husk litter material enhanced the welfare of broiler chickens in the closed-house system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has created new opportunities to map cultural ecosystem services (CES) related to biodiversity at large scales. However, using these novel data to understand people's preferences in relation to these CES remains a challenge.To address this, we trained a deep learning model to capture people's interactions with selected flora and fauna on Flickr as a cultural service related to biodiversity and compared this with citizen science data on iNaturalist, with photos of individual species considered as human–species interactions.After mapping the distribution of people's interactions in Great Britain on Flickr and iNaturalist, we find significant spatial differences in people's preferences on the two platforms.Using a second, pretrained deep learning model, we were also able to identify different preferences for species groups such as birds on social media versus citizen science.To better understand people's preferences, we also compared people's interactions with species richness and abundance for a group of 36 bird species, sometimes finding large differences between people's interactions and these ecological measures.Our findings demonstrate that social media can be used to include a wider range of preferences in CES assessments along‐side citizen science data. However, these preferences reflect only a limited first‐hand experience of biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the combination of river disruption and irrational human activities has caused serious damage to wetlands. Based on long-time-series remote-sensing images, this study applied the land use transfer matrix and landscape index method to investigate the dynamic evolution and driving forces of the Qingtongxia wetland in the upper reaches of the Yellow River from 1999 to 2020. The results show that the land use types of Qingtongxia wetland changed insignificantly from 1999 to 2020, with the area of water and grassland decreasing and the area of reed wetland, beach, farmland and forest increasing. The spatial changes in the watershed changed the distribution of other land uses within the wetland, with the watershed concentrating in a southwest–northeast direction and shrinking in the southwestern part of the wetland area between years. From 1999 to 2011, the wetlands were restored, the landscape became less fragmented and simpler in shape and the dominant species developed significantly. From 2010 to 2020, the wetlands were disturbed and, as a new tourist destination, the planning and renovation work increased fragmentation and the complexity of the patches. The complexity of the patch shape increased, and, at the same time, with the implementation of various conservation measures, the development of the dominant species within recovered. The drivers of change in the different land use areas within the wetlands of the Qingtongxia reservoir are dominated by flow, and the drivers of the evolution of landscape patterns within the wetlands are closely related to the population and gross regional product, in addition to being influenced by flow. In recent years, increased fragmentation has been the main reason for the decline in bird habitat quality. Maintaining bird diversity in the wetlands of the Qingtongxia reservoir can be based on rational planning of the proportion of different land uses within the wetlands, reducing landscape fragmentation by limiting human activities in the corresponding areas, as well as appropriate flow control measures. This study provides some reference for biodiversity conservation within wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sooty Tern Optimization Algorithm (STOA) is a newly proposed bio-inspired algorithm that mimics the migration and attacking behaviors of the sea bird sooty tern in nature. STOA has several excellent advantages, including fewer parameters, a simple structure, a fast convergence rate, and high exploitation. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find the global optimal solution and prone to losing population diversity when dealing with complex optimization problems due to its single search guidance strategy and position update method. An enhanced STOA (ESTOA) is proposed to address these shortcomings that incorporates multiple search guidance strategies and position update modes. In terms of search guidance, in addition to the best individual in the original STOA, the mean individual and a randomly selected individual are also designed to guide the search. Six position update modes are proposed in conjunction with the guidance strategies, including one improved scaling mode with an extended spiral radius and five other modes based on offset operations. Due to their distinct design objectives, these guidance strategies and position update modes exhibit varying levels of search intensity and optimization effect. However, they complement one another and work cooperatively to achieve a good balance of global exploration and local exploitation. Several widely used sets of benchmark functions with a wide range of dimensions and varying degrees of complexity are used to validate ESTOA's performance. The obtained results are compared to those of other state-of-the-art optimization algorithms in terms of convergence accuracy and a variety of numerical performance evaluation parameters. A significant improvement in solution quality demonstrates that ESTOA can increase population diversity and maintain a good balance between global exploring and local exploiting abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the cooperative control problem for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Unlike the existing models emphasizing the behavioral dimension, a general control framework inspired by bird behavior is developed by decoupling the problem into top decision-making and low-level management. Based on the individual properties, the models of communication modes, individual contribution, social relationship, and movement characteristics are proposed, where the individual contribution and social relationship can reflect the results of high-level decisions. The desired commands of the low-level realization are generated after the pre-linearized process and decoupled operator. Meanwhile, to guarantee the safety of each UAV, the collision avoidance mechanism is also applied. The convergence and stability of the proposed algorithm are also discussed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the control framework in solving the UAV flocking control problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video surveillance cameras installed on birds' nests are a cost-effective tool to study many aspects of ecology and behaviour that would otherwise be practically impossible to obtain. However, although most studies report neutral effects of cameras on birds, very few studies analyse in detail the potential negative effects of their use, particularly on raptors. Here, using a long-term database of a population of Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata) collected from 2000 to 2022, I show how the inappropriate use of video surveillance cameras could result in negative effects on the reproduction of a threatened species through a before-and-after control-impact study design. Pairs under video surveillance showed lower productivity, lower breeding success and unusual delayed laying dates. The installation of cameras close to the laying date, coinciding with the mating phase of individuals, most of them subadult inexperienced birds; in combination to the reiteration of visits to the nests once the cameras were installed to check the system, particularly during the incubation period and early stages of breeding; and the installation of cameras in a particular area subject to constant human disturbance, might explain these results. Potential management actions to mitigate the effect of the installation of video cameras on birds' behaviour should include the need to plan the intervention dates, testing the systems beforehand under controlled conditions and adequate post-installation monitoring to avoid unnecessary disturbance to animals. Finally, I urge the scientific community to report the potential negative effects observed in their studies, especially if the target species are threatened with extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an abundance of bird species in subtropical areas, but studies on the vocal behavior of non-passerines in subtropical regions are limited. In this study, passive acoustic monitoring was used to investigate the temporal acoustic patterns of the vocal activities of the Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis) in Yaoluoping National Nature Reserve (YNNR) in eastern China. The results show that the vocal production of the Oriental Turtle Dove exhibited a seasonal variation, peaking in the period April–August. Additionally, its diurnal vocal activity displayed a bimodal pattern in late spring and summer, with the first peak in the morning and a secondary peak at dusk. Among weather factors, temperature significantly affected the temporal sound pattern of the Oriental Turtle Dove, instead of humidity and precipitation. This study, which was focused on sound monitoring technology, provides knowledge for further research on bird behavior and ecology. In the future, long-term sound monitoring could be used for managing and conserving bird biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Previous studies have confirmed the effects of livestock grazing on the habitat use of ground-nesting birds, while little is known about the effects of livestock on their behaviour. In this study, we used camera traps to investigate the effects of livestock presence on the spatio-temporal patterns and behaviour of Reeves's Pheasant. We found that livestock presence altered the behavioural patterns of Reeves's Pheasant. The findings suggest the need to incorporate behavioural impacts into wildlife conservation. Protected areas are seeing an increase in anthropogenic disturbances in the world. Previous studies have demonstrated the impact of livestock grazing and human presence on the habitat use of birds, whereas little is known about the effect of free-ranging livestock on bird behaviour. Reeves's Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) is endemic to China and has been threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, illegal logging, and human disturbance over the past 20 years. Based on camera trapping in the Liankangshan National Nature Reserve (LKS) and the Zhonghuashan Birds Provincial Nature Reserve (ZHS), we explore the effects of livestock grazing and human activities on the spatio-temporal distribution and behavioural patterns of Reeves's Pheasant. Livestock does not appear to affect habitat use by the pheasant but changes its behavioural patterns. In addition, pheasants in areas with livestock foraged mostly during the early morning, while in areas without livestock, they foraged at dusk. Therefore, the study concludes that livestock intensity in nature reserves may have reduced pheasant suitability through altered patterns of vigilance and foraging behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The first study focuses on multiple behavior recognition of different birds based on the video stream. • The TNL module generates features with various rates and uses a transpose mechanism to enhance features. • DF2-Net transforms features' rates and iteratively fuses them to obtain the relationship of behavior at various rates. • We collected the new bird postures (behaviors) dataset based on videos that contain eight types of postures. It is necessary to detect changes in birds' behaviors promptly to realize their health and habitat status. Moreover, promptly provide appropriate medical treatment and environmental remediation. Automating bird behavior recognition can solve this problem and assist in breeding and protecting birds. This paper proposes the transposed non-local module based on a time pyramid network to establish a dual feature-rates deep fusion net (DF2-Net) for bird behavior recognition. The time pyramid network uses spatial alignment and time pooling operations to extract features with different rates from features of different depths and then fuse features containing the information. On this basis, the transposed non-local (TNL) module uses features with different rates to calculate the relationship matrix of each time slice and spatial position. Then TNL uses the transpose operation to make the original feature take advantage of the corresponding relationship when it multiplies the original feature by the matrix. The module further deeply integrates the relational information of behaviors at different rates to enhance features of different rates, respectively, which can improve the recognition effect of the model on dynamic behaviors. Our study has three contributions: (1) The TNL module takes features with different rates as inputs and uses a transpose mechanism to get two relationships in different directions that match their corresponding input. (2) Dual feature-rates deep fusion net (DF2-Net) transforms a single rate feature into two rate features and iteratively fuses them to obtain information and behavior relationships at various rates. (3) We collect the unique video dataset of birds' behaviors to fill in the blank of the video dataset and support the study of birds' behaviors. The experiments compare the DF2-Net with the well-known video-based recognition model on the self-collected birds' behavior dataset, containing eight behaviors. DF2-Net has the best classification accuracy and achieves 80.87%, 81.35%, 80.70%, and 81.35% in precision, recall, f1-score, and OA metrics. They are 1.81%, 2.43%, 2.20%, and 2.43% higher than the second-best approach (TPN) with 8 frames, respectively. The experimental results show that DF2-Net outperforms state-of-the-art methods in various frames, in which 16 frames are the most suitable for bird behavior recognition. Moreover, we execute the various ablation experiments to demonstrate the efficiency of the TNL module, the optimal location and internal operations of TNL, and the most suitable parameters of DF2-Net. The ablation experiments demonstrate that the TNL module dramatically improves the recognition accuracy of the dynamic behavior and proves the validity and rationality of the TNL module. Therefore, the proposed model is practical and feasible for automatically recognizing bird behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive biorobotics provides unique experimental potential to study the mechanisms underlying social communication but is limited by our ability to build expressive robots that exhibit the complex behaviours of birds and small mammals. An alternative to physical robots is to use virtual environments. Here, we designed and built a modular, audio-visual 2D virtual environment that allows multi-modal, multi-agent interaction to study mechanisms underlying social communication. The strength of the system is an implementation based on event processing that allows for complex computation. We tested this system in songbirds, which provide an exceptionally powerful and tractable model system to study social communication. We show that pair-bonded zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) communicating through the virtual environment exhibit normal call timing behaviour, males sing female directed song and both males and females display high-intensity courtship behaviours to their mates. These results suggest that the environment provided is sufficiently natural to elicit these behavioral responses. Furthermore, as an example of complex behavioral annotation, we developed a fully unsupervised song motif detector and used it to manipulate the virtual social environment of male zebra finches based on the number of motifs sung. Our virtual environment represents a first step in real-time automatic behaviour annotation and animal–computer interaction using higher level behaviours such as song. Our unsupervised acoustic analysis eliminates the need for annotated training data thus reducing labour investment and experimenter bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird species survival and breeding depend on necessary abiotic and biotic components of farmland habitat. A hybrid model based on expert knowledge using Analytic Network Process (ANP) integrated with empirical data is a capable approach for conservation scientists to determine the habitat suitability for bird species. Our study assessed the suitable distribution in the ranges of farmland habitats for bird richness throughout Taiwan, focusing on the regularly occurring birds on farmlands. We established a framework for analyzing potential habitat indicators developed by expert interviews. Then, ANP was employed to compute the weight‐based priorities. By combining habitat indicators, we assessed and presented the spatial distribution of habitat suitability. The results show that southern and eastern regions of Taiwan with high habitat suitability scores cover 60,576.51 ha (27.98%) and 40,531.42 ha (30.09%), respectively. The model has an overall accuracy of 70.40%, showing a capable and reliable approach to assessing habitat suitability for bird richness on farmland. Our study highlights a valuable tool for the policy‐makers through exploring suitable farmland habitat spots, where further conservative practices and prudent biodiversity management should be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: All large birds have devised ways to save on the costly energy demands of flight. Geese, which form into a precise V formation, are a familiar example. Current measurements from GPS instrumentation attached to birds provide the exact location of the bird at every second of its flight. These measurements are transmitted during migration. An analysis of such data for a single 105 km (~70 mile) segment of a golden eagle's flight illustrates how the bird makes use of atmospheric waves near 2000 m above the ground to repetitively climb 100s of meters while circling, followed by long glides to advance along its migratory route. From this height, in sixteen circling/gliding episodes, the eagle covers more than 100 km by harvesting atmospheric wave energy. Such details of a single bird's 2 h segment of flight provide insight into how a soaring bird can cross continents and oceans, and even rise over the world's highest mountains. One-second-processed three-dimensional position observations transmitted from an instrumented golden eagle were used to determine the detailed long-range flight behavior of the bird. Once elevated from the surface, the eagle systematically used atmospheric gravity waves, first to gain altitude, and then, in multiple sequential glides, to cover over 100 km with a minimum expenditure of its metabolic energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first study focuses on bird's posture recognition using bird's keypoints. • End-to-end dual-task network executes keypoints detection and posture recognition. • A component generation module utilizes the keypoints to generate the components. • Fusing global and local features improve the accuracy of bird posture recognition. • New bird posture dataset containing eight types of postures named IMLab-P8-2020. Bird behavior reflects its healthy and the habitat condition in which the bird's posture recognition is the basis of bird behavior research. This paper proposes an end-to-end bird posture recognition based on target keypoints estimation in the dual-task network. The network composes two sub-networks, keypoint feature extraction network and local feature extraction network. In the keypoint feature extraction network, we take the high-resolution network (HRNet) as the backbone to detect the bird's keypoints in the high-resolution branch and extract the global features from the low-resolution branch for posture recognition. We design the components generation module in the local feature extraction network, which takes detected keypoints into the clustering algorithm to generate the bird's components. We then utilize the components into convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to extract the local features for posture recognition. Finally, we fuse the global and local features to execute the bird's posture recognition. Our main contributions are fourfold: (1) We have been modified the first point of contribution. We take the bird's keypoints, which have never been used in the bird's posture recognition, to estimate the bird's posture and achieved good results. (2) We propose an end-to-end dual-task network for bird's keypoints detection and posture recognition. (3) The components generation module utilizes the bird's keypoints to crop the bird components and generates the local feature for bird posture recognition with a shallow network. (4) Creating a bird posture image dataset named IMLab-P8-2020 containing eight bird postures. We experimentally evaluated our proposed net on self-collected data set and verified that the proposed net yields better performance and greater accuracy relative to well-known counterparts concerning various metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the natural history knowledge (NHK) of students (18–19 years), considering the salience of nature expressed through the knowledge of names of organisms, routes for knowledge transmission and acquisition and the potential of specific taxa to represent a student's overall knowledge.We report a 2‐year study of the NHK of 149 UK‐resident first‐year biology students surveyed by means of a free‐listing exercise, facilitating the assessment of salience, prior to participation in a residential field course run by the University of Oxford.Each year, students anonymously completed a questionnaire asking them to name any five species in each of five taxonomic groups (birds, trees, mammals, butterflies and wildflowers) found wild in the British Isles, also stating if those named were native or introduced. Metadata were collected on the students' background and sources of knowledge (e.g. family, teachers, etc.).Of the five taxonomic groups, birds were the best known by the students, while butterflies were the most poorly known group. However, although asked for names at species level, while 94% of students could name five British bird taxa, only 55.7% named them at species level, many giving folk generics such as 'duck' or 'seagull' instead. For butterflies, only 12.8% of students correctly named five British species, and 47% named none.Family influences, self‐motivation and knowledge of birds, rather than formal education, best predicted students' overall NHK. While urban/rural residency had a small effect on NHK, it strongly influenced the relative importance of other factors.Factor analysis showed that NHK was best represented by knowledge of birds. Furthermore, the bird species named predicted students' total NHK as well as the students' knowledge of birds. Asked to name their favourite bird, students with family influence were significantly more likely to name native species.We describe the complex interplay between context, family and formal education in developing nature salience; roles which we define as nature 'advocacy'. In the urban context, the advocacy of family and teachers was essential to engage young people with nature, while this was not so in a rural context. We briefly consider the implications of our study for natural history education going forward. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stable isotope analysis of feathers can provide an indirect method to investigate the diet and foraging locations of birds during the time the feathers were growing. We used the isotopic composition of experimentally-induced feathers to investigate the foraging locations of the Hutton's shearwater (Puffinus huttoni), an endangered seabird that is a breeding endemic to the Kaikōura region of New Zealand. The isotopic composition of feathers was first compared with potential prey items collected from the near-shore marine environment near the breeding colony. By applying trophic fractionation factors (2-4 ≈ increase in δ15N for every 1 ≈ increase in δ13C) and comparing the isotopic composition of the induced tail feathers and sampled prey items, we found that feather isotopic compositions were not consistent with a diet based on feeding locally. Both the δ13C and δ15N from zooplankton and fish collected within 8 km of Kaikōura were significantly different than the isotopic composition of induced feathers and were outside of the range expected for consumed local prey items. Instead, we found the isotopic composition of Hutton's shearwater feathers was more consistent with feeding on potential prey items in the seas north-east and around Banks Peninsula, an area c. 100 km south of the breeding colony and where they had been tracked previously. Stable isotope analysis can provide insight into the foraging behaviour of birds at sea and demonstrates the importance of isotopic research in pinpointing foraging locations in seabirds with large geographic ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of isolation or confinement, making regular natural history observations can not only represent a source of enjoyment, but generates insights into local avian ecology. Here we present an account of the urban bird diversity of Stellenbosch, South Africa, derived from daily observations of species presence collected during the initial two stages of the country's nationwide COVID-19 lockdown period (66 days). A total of 38 bird species were observed during this time, including sightings of urban hunting behavior for birds of prey and greenspace foraging in general. The most commonly seen taxa were typical human-commensal species, including sparrows and doves. Many species were encountered far less frequently, with 21 of the 38 species being observed on less than 10 days. This was most notable for birds of prey (n = 6 species from Accipitriformes and Falconiformes) or African swifts (n = 2 species from Apodiformes), which were recorded only a few times for any given species. Our account provides some relatively niche information regarding the presence of birds from a single city block in South Africa and notes interesting observations of urban foraging behaviour, but also underscores the value of birdwatching during times of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination malpractice has become a global cankerworm that has eaten so deep into our educational system and posing a serious threat to total development of students in our educational system. In search of solution to this anti-educational behavior, experts have attributed it to many factors including peer influence on the assumption that birds of a feather flock together and on the axiom; 'show me your friends and I will tell you who you are'. This study therefore examined the peer group influence and gender as correlates of Library and Information Science students' attitude towards examination malpractice and it implication for all round development of students. The study applied a correctional research design with a population sample of 259 LIS randomly selected from seven public universities in Nigeria offering degree programs in library and Information Science. The study was guided by three research questions and hypotheses respectively while the principle instrument used to elicit responses from the respondents was a structured question on peer group and library and information science students' attitude towards examination malpractice' whereas, the data obtained were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) (Pearson r) which basically was used to establish the relationship between peer group influence and Library and Information Science students attitude towards examination malpractice. The outcome of this study revealed that library and information science students generally have negative attitude towards examination malpractice and frown at it. The result also shows that both male and female students' attitude towards this canker-worm was same. In the end, it was recommended among others that parents, university management and heads of library schools should regularly organize school programs promoting healthy peer relationship and upholding students' value of negative attitude towards examination malpractice as discovered by this study for all round development of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic disturbance has been demonstrated to affect the behavior of beach‐nesting birds, yet the energetic consequences of recreational activities have received less attention. Because precocial chicks are often displaced as a result of disturbance events, lower access to food may lead to lower fitness. We studied the influence of site characteristics and human disturbance on behavior, habitat use, growth rate, and survival of piping plover chicks in New Jersey, a portion of the Atlantic Coast population that continues to demonstrate poor demographic output. Sites varied in levels of human disturbance and access to high‐quality foraging habitat, which are two critical components of fledging success. We found that compared to chicks with access to bayside foraging habitat, chicks at sites without such access experienced higher rates of anthropogenic disturbance, spent less time in moist‐substrate habitats, and spent more time in upland dunes. Foraging rates were greatest for chicks in moist‐substrate habitat with bayside access and for chicks in the oceanside intertidal zone without bayside access. Further, overall chick growth rates were higher for chicks reared at sites with bayside access. Chick survival increased with age, decreased with increasing precipitation, and increased with bayside foraging habitat availability. Human disturbance was likely limiting chick access to foraging opportunities at sites open to the public, with an apparent effect on growth rate. Maintaining access to high‐quality foraging habitat that is free of human activity through habitat restoration, supplementary food, or beach closures could help to increase reproductive success in New Jersey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many bird species in montane regions exhibit altitudinal migration behavior; however, altitudinal migration of birds is still understudied, especially in Asia. Mt. Gongga (7556 ​m) is the highest peak of the Hengduan Mountains in Southwest China. The steep elevation gradient and the high bird diversity make the eastern slope of Mt. Gongga (Hailuo Valley) an ideal place for studying the altitudinal migration behavior patterns of birds. We synchronously recorded the local bird diversity, temperature and humidity at two sites (1800 and 3000 ​m a.s.l.) during three migration seasons from September 2020 to June 2021 to identify birds exhibiting altitudinal migration behavior. During our surveys, we recorded 146 bird species in total and 20 passerine bird species were altitudinal migrants according to our altitudinal migration formula. Among those 20 altitudinal migrant species, eight bird species displayed a typical altitudinal migration pattern (upward migration during the breeding season and downward migration during the non-breeding season). Moreover, temperature was correlated with the daily number of individuals (DNI) at each study site. Therefore, increasing temperatures possibly caused upward migration of birds (DNI decreased at 1800 ​m and increased at 3000 ​m) and vice versa. To further elaborate, the Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher (Ficedula strophiata), the species with the most prominent altitudinal migration behavior, initiated upward migration at a temperature of 11–12 ​°C at 1800 ​m and initiated downward migration at a temperature of 12–13 ​°C at 3000 ​m. Besides, humidity was positively correlated with the DNI. Therefore, increasing humidity (equals to increasing rainfall or snow) possibly caused downward migration of birds (DNI increased) and vice versa. Furthermore, bird species exhibiting a typical altitudinal migration behavior pattern are feeding on insects. Thus, the spatial and temporal changes of the invertebrate biomass might be an important ecological driver for the altitudinal migration of invertivorous (birds eating invertebrates) birds. This study provides fundamental data for the altitudinal migration of birds in the Hengduan Mountains and shows how altitudinal migration is seasonally dynamic across an elevational gradient in a subtropical mountain region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]