Avian Research最新文献

{"title":"Escape behavior and refuge selection preferences by two common urban birds","authors":"Haijie Zhang ,&nbsp;Yining Li ,&nbsp;Yiran Wang ,&nbsp;Guofen Zhu ,&nbsp;Jiaojiao Wang ,&nbsp;Laikun Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100315","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100315","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urbanization destroys wildlife habitats, fragmenting them into small patches with poor connectivity, leading to population declines in species sensitive to such changes. Escape is the most common anti-predator strategy adopted by birds, refuges in habitats reduce or eliminate predation risk. Therefore, creating habitats with suitable refuges for birds has significant implications for their conservation. However, there have been few studies on refuge selection in birds. This study examined the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (<em>Passer montanus</em>) and Oriental Magpie (<em>Pica serica</em>) in urban and rural areas of Chengde City, northern China by measuring their alert distance (AD), flight initiation distance (FID), and distance fled (DF) and analyzed their refuge selection characteristics after escaping. The FID/AD ratio was employed to assess the behavioral differences of birds in the risk trade-off. The results showed that the FID and FID/AD of both species were lower in urban areas than in rural areas and were negatively correlated with immediate human density. Sparrow FID was significantly affected by group size and landing substrate type. The FID of sparrows was positively correlated with the group size. The sparrows that fled to bushes escaped earlier. In urban and rural areas, sparrows exhibited significantly lower FID, DF, and FID/AD than magpies. The species adopted different refuge selection strategies, with magpies preferentially selecting trees with greater vertical height and sparrows selecting both trees and bushes. Further analysis indicated that the horizontal and vertical distances fled of both species were lower when fleeing to bushes. Urban planning and conservation areas construction should incorporate the ecological needs of local bird species to rationally configure their habitat structure, thereby optimizing the effect of avian conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100315"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145521067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity and prevalence of avian haemosporidians across Afrotropical urban and non-urban habitats","authors":"Adewale G. Awoyemi ,&nbsp;Jorge Garrido-Bautista ,&nbsp;Yahkat Barshep ,&nbsp;Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100330","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100330","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Haemosporidian parasites are widespread among birds globally, with impacts ranging from severe disease to negligible effects, particularly in host species that have coevolved with their parasites. Despite their ecological importance, the diversity and prevalence of these parasites in the Afrotropical region remain poorly understood, especially in urban environments. Our study investigated the prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites in Afrotropical avian hosts, focusing on differences between urban and non-urban habitats. We screened 95 birds from various species in Nigeria and investigated whether urbanization is associated with changes in the prevalence and richness of lineages of three haemosporidian parasites (<em>Haemoproteus</em>, <em>Plasmodium</em>, and <em>Leucocytozoon</em>). We found a haemosporidian prevalence of 36.8% with genus-specific differences between urban and non-urban habitats. The probability of <em>Haemoproteus</em> infection was higher in urban than non-urban habitats, but <em>Plasmodium</em> and <em>Leucocytozoon</em> did not differ between these habitats. Moreover, <em>Haemoproteus</em> lineages were exclusively found in urban habitats, while most <em>Plasmodium</em> lineages were restricted to non-urban habitats. Notably, we expanded the knowledge on diversity of haemosporidian lineages and avian hosts in the Afrotropics, with the first-ever record of hPYNJOC1 and pLUME2 lineages for the region, and the addition of new hosts for four <em>Haemoproteus</em> and two <em>Plasmodium</em> lineages. Our findings highlight the complexity of host-parasite relationships and the need for further research into the dynamics of haemosporidian parasites in Afrotropical avian hosts inhabiting diverse habitats. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of the prevalence, diversity, and distribution of haemosporidian parasites in the Afrotropics, emphasizing the importance of continued surveillance and monitoring to inform strategies for avian conservation and management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100330"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145839726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cell-autonomous determination of sex dimorphism in neuromodulation of a gynandromorphic Zebra Finch","authors":"Yangyang Cao ,&nbsp;Zhiwen Huang ,&nbsp;Wenxiang Hu ,&nbsp;Yutao Zhang ,&nbsp;Kun Zhang ,&nbsp;Jiachun Zuo ,&nbsp;Yan Zou ,&nbsp;Wei Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100327","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100327","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gynandromorphs, rare in vertebrates, exhibit distinct sex-determining gene expression on each side of the body despite sharing a uniform hormonal environment. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate the respective roles of genes and hormones in sex determination. We accidently obtained a gynandromorphic Zebra Finch with a male-female chimeric appearance but only with an ovary-like gonad. Its plasma estradiol was significantly higher than that of age-matched females, and its sexual partner preference was also feminine. Although it did not sing like males, its calls showed masculinization. In the brain on one side of the body with male plumage, the area of song motor nucleus, the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA), and the excitatory synaptic transmission of RA projection neurons showed masculinization. Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes related to cholinergic neuron function were significantly upregulated in the masculinized side of brain. Moreover, there were extensive and consistent expression differences of neuroactive substance receptor genes in both sides of body, indicating that cell-autonomous determination plays a key role in sex dimorphism of neuromodulation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100327"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145736052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Balancing energy efficiency and avian conservation: divergent nest-site selection responses of Barn Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows to attached sunspaces in cold rural landscapes","authors":"Zheng Han ,&nbsp;Kaiyan Li ,&nbsp;Xiaoxiao Wang ,&nbsp;Xi Yang ,&nbsp;Piotr Tryjanowski ,&nbsp;Frédéric Jiguet ,&nbsp;Letao Huang ,&nbsp;Houjun Wang ,&nbsp;Jingshu Zhang ,&nbsp;Ziqi liu ,&nbsp;Haitao Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Human-modified landscapes serve as ecological filters, determining species distributions and persistence. Energy-efficient technologies, while crucial for climate change mitigation, represent novel filters whose impacts on synanthropic biodiversity are poorly understood. We investigated how attached sunspaces, a widely adopted energy-saving technology in rural China, filter the distribution of two ecologically important aerial insectivores, the Barn Swallow (<em>Hirundo rustica</em>) and Red-rumped Swallow (<em>Cecropis daurica</em>). We surveyed 106 villages during the 2024 and 2025 breeding seasons and recorded a total of 2323 nests (612 Barn Swallow, 1711 Red-rumped Swallow). Using Generalized Linear Models, we assessed their responses to building characteristics, landscape composition and the prevalence of sunspaces. Barn Swallow nests preferred perches at the base and single attachment faces, while Red-rumped Swallow nests favored multiple attachment faces and avoided long shelters. The proportion of buildings with sunspaces acted as a strong positive filter for Barn Swallow nest abundance (+24%) but as a significant negative filter for Red-rumped Swallow (−51%). Other landscape variables (e.g., human population density, NDVI, Human Footprint Index) were not significant. This study demonstrates that specific architectural innovations can act as powerful ecological filters, leading to divergent distributional outcomes for sympatric species reliant on anthropogenic structures. Our findings reveal a critical trade-off in sustainable development: energy efficiency gains may inadvertently reduce habitat suitability for certain species. To reconcile climate and biodiversity goals in rural landscapes, we advocate integrating species-specific habitat requirements into building design. We propose actionable modifications to sunspaces to support swallows without compromising energy savings. These principles provide a template for mitigating the distributional impacts of green infrastructure globally.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100312"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145435658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Patterns and drivers of beta diversity in bird communities associated with blue-green infrastructure in rapidly urbanizing landscapes","authors":"Fuqiang Zhao ,&nbsp;Yuan Wang ,&nbsp;Dazhi Zhang ,&nbsp;Ying Yang ,&nbsp;Xuetao Li ,&nbsp;Ying Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100316","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100316","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Habitat loss driven by land-use change is a major factor shaping the dynamics of urban bird community structures. However, the potential mechanisms by which the spatial configuration and composition of blue-green infrastructure, recognized as biodiversity hotspots in urban landscapes, influence urban bird beta diversity remain insufficiently understood. This study was conducted in the built-up area of Yinchuan, an internationally recognized wetland city in Northwest China. From December 2023 to June 2024, we systematically surveyed bird communities during both the breeding and wintering periods across 29 blue-green space mosaics. We quantified taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic beta diversity, along with their turnover component and nestedness-resultant component, based on both pairwise beta diversity and multiple-site beta diversity. We further assessed the relative importance of landscape variables and spatial geographic distance in shaping beta diversity patterns and used hierarchical modeling of species communities (HMSC) to explore the responses of bird occurrence and functional traits to landscape variables. Our results revealed that species turnover was the dominant driver of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic beta diversity. Seasonal differences were observed in the effects of spatial geographic distance and landscape structure on beta diversity and its components, with landscape variables showing higher explanatory power than geographic isolation. In the breeding period, landscape diversity and waterbody area had positive effects on bird occurrence, whereas in the wintering period, most landscape features—except for landscape diversity—exerted neutral or negative influences. Regarding functional traits, we found that reproductive traits, flight ability, and foraging characteristics responded significantly to landscape structure, and that some small-bodied species active in aerial and canopy layers were more adaptable to habitat fragmentation. This study provides novel insights into the assembly processes and driving mechanisms of urban bird communities and offers scientific support for the notion that designing and maintaining blue-green infrastructure can contribute to urban biodiversity conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100316"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145521069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SDNet: A self-supervised bird recognition method based on large language models and diffusion models for improving long-term bird monitoring","authors":"Zhongde Zhang ,&nbsp;Nan Su ,&nbsp;Chenxun Deng ,&nbsp;Yandong Zhao ,&nbsp;Weiping Liu ,&nbsp;Qiaoling Han","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100320","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100320","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The collection and annotation of large-scale bird datasets are resource-intensive and time-consuming processes that significantly limit the scalability and accuracy of biodiversity monitoring systems. While self-supervised learning (SSL) has emerged as a promising approach for leveraging unannotated data, current SSL methods face two critical challenges in bird species recognition: (1) long-tailed data distributions that result in poor performance on underrepresented species; and (2) domain shift issues caused by data augmentation strategies designed to mitigate class imbalance. Here we present SDNet, a novel SSL-based bird recognition framework that integrates diffusion models with large language models (LLMs) to overcome these limitations. SDNet employs LLMs to generate semantically rich textual descriptions for tail-class species by prompting the models with species taxonomy, morphological attributes, and habitat information, producing detailed natural language priors that capture fine-grained visual characteristics (e.g., plumage patterns, body proportions, and distinctive markings). These textual descriptions are subsequently used by a conditional diffusion model to synthesize new bird image samples through cross-attention mechanisms that fuse textual embeddings with intermediate visual feature representations during the denoising process, ensuring generated images preserve species-specific morphological details while maintaining photorealistic quality. Additionally, we incorporate a Swin Transformer as the feature extraction backbone whose hierarchical window-based attention mechanism and shifted windowing scheme enable multi-scale local feature extraction that proves particularly effective at capturing fine-grained discriminative patterns (such as beak shape and feather texture) while mitigating domain shift between synthetic and original images through consistent feature representations across both data sources. SDNet is validated on both a self-constructed dataset (Bird_BXS) and a publicly available benchmark (Birds_25), demonstrating substantial improvements over conventional SSL approaches. Our results indicate that the synergistic integration of LLMs, diffusion models, and the Swin Transformer architecture contributes significantly to recognition accuracy, particularly for rare and morphologically similar species. These findings highlight the potential of SDNet for addressing fundamental limitations of existing SSL methods in avian recognition tasks and establishing a new paradigm for efficient self-supervised learning in large-scale ornithological vision applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100320"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145736155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Satellite tracking reveals a migratory divide and population-specific migratory strategies in White-naped Cranes","authors":"Lijia Wen ,&nbsp;Gankhuyag Purev-Ochir ,&nbsp;Baasansuren Erdenechimeg ,&nbsp;Dashdorj Khurelbaatar ,&nbsp;Xuezhu Li ,&nbsp;Xianda Li ,&nbsp;Yi Hao ,&nbsp;Yumin Guo ,&nbsp;Yanjie Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100324","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100324","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Migratory divides, where individuals from distinct breeding populations within a species exhibit divergent migratory routes and strategies, play a critical role in shaping avian ecology and evolution. These divides can drive intraspecific genetic divergence and promote reproductive isolation, potentially leading to population differentiation and speciation. Understanding the migration strategies of populations utilizing distinct flyways is essential not only for elucidating the mechanisms underlying migration patterns but also for informing effective species conservation efforts. From 2014 to 2023, we used satellite tracking to monitor the migration patterns of 87 White-naped Cranes (<em>Antigone vipio</em>) from the species' two breeding populations—western (Mongolia) and eastern (Songnen Plain, China). We delineated their migratory routes, quantified key migration parameters, and identified their population- and season-specific differences in migratory strategies. Our results indicate that the Greater Khingan Mountains and the Bohai-Yellow Sea formed a distinct migratory barrier separating the eastern and western populations. Significant differences in migration strategies were observed between populations and seasons. The western population adopts a “longer-distance, slower-speed, more-stopover” strategy, while the eastern population employs a “shorter-distance, higher-speed, fewer-stopover” strategy. Our study identifies the migratory divides between the two populations of White-naped Cranes and highlights the importance of migratory divides in shaping distinct migration strategies. These findings enhance our understanding of the factors driving population-specific migration strategies and provide a foundation for tailored conservation efforts for these populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100324"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Phylogenomic insights into the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of penduline tits (Remiz spp.)","authors":"Hui Wang ,&nbsp;Shenghan Gao ,&nbsp;Jia Zheng ,&nbsp;Yu Liu ,&nbsp;Yang Wu ,&nbsp;Mansour Aliabadian ,&nbsp;Jan Komdeur ,&nbsp;Tamás Székely ,&nbsp;Zhengwang Zhang ,&nbsp;De Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100336","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100336","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Penduline tits (genus <em>Remiz</em>) are small passerines distributed across Europe, Central and East Asia, and North Africa, renowned for their elaborate nests and unusually diverse mating systems. However, the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships within this genus have remained contentious due to overlapping breeding distributions and extensive hybridization. Using broad-range geographic sampling and whole-genome sequencing, here we report the phylogenetic relationships within this genus. Our results from maximum likelihood trees, species trees, population structure, and PCA analyses consistently identify four distinct, well-supported monophyletic clades. Based on these robust results, we support dividing <em>Remiz</em> into four species: the Eurasian Penduline Tit (<em>R. pendulinus</em>), Black-headed Penduline Tit (<em>R. macronyx</em>), White-crowned Penduline Tit (<em>R. coronatus</em>), and Chinese Penduline Tit (<em>R. consobrinus</em>). Among these species, <em>R. consobrinus</em> diverged earlier from other species, followed by <em>R. coronatus</em>, and then, <em>R. pendulinus</em> and <em>R. macronyx</em>. <em>R. pendulinus</em> and <em>R. macronyx</em> showed shallow genetic differentiation with recent divergence (∼87,000 years ago) and ongoing gene flow. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of phylogenomic approaches in resolving taxonomic ambiguities and provide a robust evolutionary framework for tracing the diversification of life history traits, particularly nest structures and mating systems, across the genus.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"Article 100336"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145924256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “Shallow water habitats provide high-quality foraging environments for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper at a critical staging site” [Avian Res. 16 (2025) 100233]","authors":"Lili Sun ,&nbsp;Hongyan Yang ,&nbsp;Xiuyuan Lu ,&nbsp;Ting Fu ,&nbsp;Jia Guo ,&nbsp;Sicheng Ren ,&nbsp;Waner Liang ,&nbsp;Qing Chen ,&nbsp;Dongming Li ,&nbsp;Theunis Piersma ,&nbsp;Nicola Crockford ,&nbsp;Yifei Jia ,&nbsp;Guangchun Lei","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100309","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100309","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"16 4","pages":"Article 100309"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145415749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strengthening flyway conservation through NGOs' engagement: Case of Hanns Seidel foundation","authors":"Hyun-Ah Choi ,&nbsp;Bernhard Seliger","doi":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100287","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.avrs.2025.100287","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51311,"journal":{"name":"Avian Research","volume":"16 4","pages":"Article 100287"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144879932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}