Frugivorous birds generally exhibit an unequal contribution to dispersal effectiveness of plant species as a function of their habitat adaptation and body size. In our study, we compared the effectiveness of multiple bird species that contribute to the dispersal of the endangered relic Chinese yew, Taxus chinensis. Seven bird species dispersed T. chinensis seeds, with Picus canus, Turdus hortul...

Increasing housing density is generally assumed to confer negative effects on forest breeding birds. This implies we should build at low density over the landscape to conserve these species. However, for a given human population, low-density development must cover a large area, resulting in sprawl. A pertinent question is then: at what housing density are the impacts of a given human population...

Biological echoes are treated as contamination like ground or sea clutters by radar meteorologists as they estimate rainfall intensities or assimilate radar reflectivity into numerical forecast model. Doppler velocity measured by radar in the presence of small insects well represents air motion because small insects are considered as passive tracers. But in the presence of birds especially migr...

West Nile fever emerged in New York in the summer of 1999 when seven people, several horses and thousands of wild birds died. It was soon established that the human disease and the mortality of birds were related. Continued surveillance detected West Nile virus in mosquitoes, birds, horses, small mammals, bats and humans, and has shown its spread to several northeastern states. These events con...

Since 1899 ringing (or banding) remained the most important source of information about migration routes, stopover sites and wintering grounds for birds that are too small to carry satellite-based tracking systems. Despite the large quantity of migrating birds ringed in their breeding areas in Europe, the number of ring recoveries from sub-Saharan Africa is very low and therefore the whereabout...

Geolocators are small light-weight data loggers used to track individual migratory routes, and their use has increased exponentially in birds. However, the effects of geolocators on individual performance are still poorly known. We studied geolocator effects on a long-distance migrating passerine bird, the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe L.). We asked the general question of whether geoloc...