Microclimate in a Reed Bunting roost

Genetic variation and bill size dimorphism in a passerine bird, the reed bunting Emberiza schoeniclus.

In passerine birds morphological differentiation in bill size within species is not commonly observed. Bill size is usually associated with a trophic niche, and strong differences in it may reflect the process of genetic differentiation and, possibly, speciation. We used both mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear microsatellites to study genetic variation between two subspecies of reed bunting,...

Variation in singing style use in the reed bunting Emberiza schoeniclus: influencing factors and possible functions

Effects of reproductive condition, roost microclimate, and weather patterns on summer torpor use by a vespertilionid bat

A growing number of mammal species are recognized as heterothermic, capable of maintaining a high-core body temperature or entering a state of metabolic suppression known as torpor. Small mammals can achieve large energetic savings when torpid, but they are also subject to ecological costs. Studying torpor use in an ecological and physiological context can help elucidate relative costs and bene...

Reed bunting females increase fitness through extra-pair mating with genetically dissimilar males.

Females of many socially monogamous species accept or even actively seek copulations outside the social pair bond. As females cannot increase the number of offspring with promiscuous behaviour, the question arises why they engage in extra-pair mating. We used microsatellite data to determine paternity, heterozygosity and genetic relatedness in the reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), a species ...

Henry Bunting 1911-1954

It is presumptuous for any one person to claim to know another. It is especially so for me to claim to have known, in any total sense of the word, Henry Bunting. For, as I look around this assembly of friends or recall the variety of those who have spoken to me about him during the last few days, I realize how deep, yet how widely-ranging, was his power of friendship. I grew up with him, amid t...