| avian hosts of west nile virus in arizona. | west nile virus (wnv) causes sporadic outbreaks of human encephalitis in phoenix, arizona. to identify amplifying hosts of wnv in the phoenix area, we blood-sampled resident birds and measured antibody prevalence following an outbreak in the east valley of metropolitan phoenix during summer, 2010. house sparrow (passer domesticus), house finch (haemorhous mexicanus), great-tailed grackle (quiscalus mexicanus), and mourning dove (zenaida macroura) accounted for most wnv infections among locally r ... | 2013 | 23857022 |
| reduced west nile virus transmission around communal roosts of great-tailed grackle (quiscalus mexicanus). | west nile virus has caused several outbreaks among humans in the phoenix metropolitan area (arizona, southwest usa) within the last decade. recent ecologic studies have implicated culex quinquefasciatus and culex tarsalis as the mosquito vectors and identified three abundant passerine birds-great-tailed grackle (quiscalus mexicanus), house sparrow (passer domesticus), and house finch (haemorhous mexicanus)-as key amplifiers among vertebrates. nocturnal congregations of certain species have been ... | 2014 | 25480320 |
| linking optimal foraging behavior to bird community structure in an urban-desert landscape: field experiments with artificial food patches. | urban bird communities exhibit high population densities and low species diversity, yet mechanisms behind these patterns remain largely untested. we present results from experimental studies of behavioral mechanisms underlying these patterns and provide a test of foraging theory applied to urban bird communities. we measured foraging decisions at artificial food patches to assess how urban habitats differ from wildlands in predation risk, missed-opportunity cost, competition, and metabolic cost. ... | 2004 | 15278846 |