| flights of fear: a mechanical wing whistle sounds the alarm in a flocking bird. | animals often form groups to increase collective vigilance and allow early detection of predators, but this benefit of sociality relies on rapid transfer of information. among birds, alarm calls are not present in all species, while other proposed mechanisms of information transfer are inefficient. we tested whether wing sounds can encode reliable information on danger. individuals taking off in alarm fly more quickly or ascend more steeply, so may produce different sounds in alarmed than in rou ... | 2009 | 19726481 |
| avian thermoregulation in the heat: efficient evaporative cooling allows for extreme heat tolerance in four southern hemisphere columbids. | birds show phylogenetic variation in the relative importance of respiratory versus cutaneous evaporation, but the consequences for heat tolerance and evaporative cooling capacity remain unclear. we measured evaporative water loss (ewl), resting metabolic rate (rmr) and body temperature (tb) in four arid-zone columbids from southern africa [namaqua dove (oena capensis, ∼37 g), laughing dove (spilopelia senegalensis, ∼89 g) and cape turtle dove (streptopelia capicola, ∼148 g)] and australia [crest ... | 2016 | 27207640 |
| avian mortality risk during heat waves will increase greatly in arid australia during the 21st century. | intense heat waves are occurring more frequently, with concomitant increases in the risk of catastrophic avian mortality events via lethal dehydration or hyperthermia. we quantified the risks of lethal hyperthermia and dehydration for 10 australian arid-zone avifauna species during the 21st century, by synthesizing thermal physiology data on evaporative water losses and heat tolerance limits. we evaluated risks of lethal hyperthermia or exceedance of dehydration tolerance limits in the absence o ... | 2020 | 32523698 |
| sounds of modified flight feathers reliably signal danger in a pigeon. | in his book on sexual selection, darwin [1] devoted equal space to non-vocal and vocal communication in birds. since then, vocal communication has become a model for studies of neurobiology, learning, communication, evolution, and conservation [2, 3]. in contrast, non-vocal "instrumental music," as darwin called it, has only recently become subject to sustained inquiry [4, 5]. in particular, outstanding work reveals how feathers, often highly modified, produce distinctive sounds [6-9], and sugge ... | 2017 | 29129533 |
| sex determination in 58 bird species and evaluation of chd gene as a universal molecular marker in bird sexing. | the aim of this research was to test the chd gene (chromo helicase dna-binding gene) as a universal molecular marker for sexing birds of relatively distant species. the chd gene corresponds to the aim because of its high degree of conservation and different lengths in z and w chromosomes due to different intron sizes. dna was isolated from feathers and the amplification of the chd gene was performed with the following sets of polymerase chain reaction (pcr) primers: 2550f/2718r and p2/p8. sex de ... | 2015 | 22553188 |
| thermoregulatory physiology of the crested pigeon ocyphaps lophotes and the brush bronzewing phaps elegans. | the metabolic physiology of the crested pigeon (ocyphaps lophotes) and the brush bronzewing (phaps elegans) is generally similar to that expected for birds of their size, but the crested pigeon has a number of characteristics which would aid survival in hot and dry regions. body temperature increased similarly for the crested pigeon (from 38.8 degrees c to 41.5 degrees c) and the brush bronzewing (39.3 degrees c to 41.4 degrees c) over ambient temperatures (t(a)s) from 10 degrees c to 35 degrees ... | 2003 | 12743724 |
| pigeon lice down under: taxonomy of australian campanulotes (phthiraptera: philopteridae), with a description of c. durdeni n. sp. | campanulotes flavus (rudow, 1869) from phaps chalcoptera is redescribed and illustrated. c. defectus tendeiro, 1969, erroneously recorded from the extinct passenger pigeon ectopistes migratorius, is shown to be a junior synonym of c. flavus, thus removing it from the list of lice thought to have gone extinct with the passenger pigeon. c. flavus elegans (tendeiro, 1978) from p. elegans is elevated to specific rank and redescribed. finally, c. durdeni n. sp. is described from its type host ocyphap ... | 2000 | 11128516 |