Austral birds offer insightful complementary models in ecology and evolution.

The Southern Hemisphere differs from the Northern Hemisphere in many aspects. However, most ecological and evolutionary research is conducted in the Northern Hemisphere and its conclusions are extrapolated to the entire globe. Therefore, unique organismal and evolutionary characteristics of the south are overlooked. We use ornithology to show the importance of including a southern perspective. We present examples of plumage pigmentation, brood-parasitic nestling ejection, flightlessness, female song, and female aggression modulated by progesterone as complementary models for investigating fundamental biological questions. More research in the Southern Hemisphere, together with increased cooperation among researchers across the hemispheres and within the Southern Hemisphere, will provide a greater global outlook into ecology and evolution. In ecological studies sampling must be stratified to ensure a sample population that best represents the entire population studied. Meta-analyses assessing global patterns should also use a stratified data structure to ensure unbiased results. We show that this is generally not the case, as individual studies are heavily biased toward the Northern Hemisphere. We also show that Southern Hemisphere birds offer insightful complementary models for ecological and evolutionary biology. We therefore point to the need for promoting research in the Southern Hemisphere to tackle fundamental questions with a global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]