While the positive relationship between avian diversity and habitat heterogeneity is widely accepted, it is primarily based on observed species richness without accounting for imperfect detection. Other facets of diversity such as functional diversity are also rarely explored. We investigated the avian diversity-landscape heterogeneity relationship in agricultural landscapes by considering two ...

Birds serve as reservoirs for at least 10 arthropod borne viruses of wildlife and human concern (e.g. West Nile virus, Western Equine Encephalitis) and greater knowledge of the immune system dynamics of avian hosts and their disease vectors will have obvious economic benefits to agricultural, wildlife and human health interests. The more we begin to understand the host-vectorpathogen interactio...

Food availability is a primary driver of avian population regulation. However, few studies have considered the effects of what is essentially a massive supplementary feeding experiment: the practice of wild bird feeding. Bird feeding has been posited as an important factor influencing the structure of bird communities, especially in urban areas, although experimental evidence to support this is...

Mandates for biofuel and renewable electricity are creating incentives for biomass production in agricultural landscapes of the Upper Midwest. Different bioenergy crops are expected to vary in their effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Here, we use data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey to forecast the impact of potential bioenergy crops on avian species richness and the n...

background: the intracellular protozoan parasites of the genus haemoproteus occur in different avian hosts all over the world. various genus of blood sucking insects’ families such as hippoboscidae and ceratopogonidae could transmit haemoproteus in avian hosts. there are very limited number of studies on wild infected birds with blood parasites in iran, so the aim of this study was to determine...

Approximately 9.2% of avian taxa are known to hybridize, a larger proportion than most vertebrate groups. However, rates of hybridization vary widely across avian orders: ducks and geese (Anseriformes) hybridize widely and frequently, while hybridization between swift species (Apodiformes) has never been recorded (Grant & Grant 1992). Seabirds, excluding the whiteheaded gull complex (Charadriif...

The spread of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) sub-type H5N1 has been an issue of international concern. This spread presents a serious threat to domestic poultry and a potentially serious risk to human health. It is also an issue which could potentially have consequences for populations of wild birds and other animal species of conservation concern. As wildfowl (ducks, swans and ge...

We report the first large-scale surveillance of avian influenza viruses in water birds conducted in Africa. This study shows evidence of avian influenza viruses in wild birds, both Eurasian and Afro-tropical species, in several major wetlands of Africa.

Avian malaria and related haemosporidian parasites (genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) affect bird demography, species range limits, and community structure, yet they remain unsurveyed in most bird communities and populations. We conducted a community-level survey of these vector-transmitted parasites in New Mexico, USA, to describe their diversity, abundance, and host associat...