| cultural ecology of whitethroat (sylvia communis) habitat management by farmers: winter in farmland trees and shrubs in senegambia. | the presence of whitethroats and their potential invertebrate prey in farmland trees and shrubs was investigated. the management of this vegetation by farmers, and their motivation for that management, was explored using participatory techniques. whitethroats were associated with guiera senegalensis, the shrub species which supports most caterpillars and spiders. farmers reported declines in trees and shrubs since the 1950s, loss of fallow areas, declines in soil fertility and crop yields, and i ... | 2001 | 11505762 |
| microhabitat selection by three common bird species of montane farmlands in northern greece. | common farmland birds are declining throughout europe; however, marginal farmlands that escaped intensification or land abandonment remain a haven for farmland species in some mediterranean mountains. the purpose of this study is to identify the most important anthropogenic microhabitat characteristics for red-backed shrike (lanius collurio), corn bunting (miliaria calandra) and common whitethroat (sylvia communis) in three such areas within the newly established northern pindos national park. w ... | 2009 | 19705197 |
| the sex-biased brain: sexual dimorphism in gene expression in two species of songbirds. | despite virtually identical dna sequences between the sexes, sexual dimorphism is a widespread phenomenon in nature. to a large extent the systematic differences between the sexes must therefore arise from processes involving gene regulation. in accordance, sexual dimorphism in gene expression is common and extensive. genes with sexually dimorphic regulation are known to evolve rapidly, both in dna sequence and in gene expression profile. studies of gene expression in related species can shed li ... | 2011 | 21235773 |
| sex-biased gene expression on the avian z chromosome: highly expressed genes show higher male-biased expression. | dosage compensation, the process whereby expression of sex-linked genes remains similar between sexes (despite heterogamety) and balanced with autosomal expression, was long believed to be essential. however, recent research has shown that several lineages, including birds, butterflies, monotremes and sticklebacks, lack chromosome-wide dosage compensation mechanisms and do not completely balance the expression of sex-linked and autosomal genes. to obtain further understanding of avian sex-biased ... | 2012 | 23056488 |
| importation of hyalomma marginatum, vector of crimean-congo haemorrhagic fever virus, into the united kingdom by migratory birds. | hyalomma marginatum ticks are an important vector of crimean-congo haemorrhagic fever virus which can result in a severe and potentially fatal disease in humans. given the continued emergence of clinical cases in eurasia and focalised upsurges of h. marginatum populations in europe, it seemed prudent to assess the potential of this vector species to be introduced into the united kingdom. immature forms of h. marginatum are frequent ectoparasites of passerine birds many of which migrate from afri ... | 2012 | 22300969 |
| bioenergy and biodiversity: intensified biomass extraction from hedges impairs habitat conditions for birds. | biomass is increasingly used as an alternative source for energy in europe. woody material cut from hedges is considered to provide a suitable complement to maize and oilseed rape, which are currently the dominant biomass sources. since shrubs and trees are also important habitats for birds, however, coppicing of hedges at the landscape scale may adversely affect the diversity of the avifauna. to evaluate this risk, we estimated the response of hedge birds to three management scenarios differing ... | 2017 | 27915181 |
| stopover decision during migration: physiological conditions predict nocturnal restlessness in wild passerines. | during migration, a number of bird species rely on stopover sites for resting and feeding before and after crossing ecological barriers such as deserts or seas. the duration of a stopover depends on the combined effects of environmental factors, endogenous programmes and physiological conditions. previous studies indicated that lean birds prolong their refuelling stopover compared with fat birds; however, the quantitative relationship between physiological conditions and stopover behaviour has n ... | 2009 | 19324648 |
| technical advances: a microarray for large-scale genomic and transcriptional analyses of the zebra finch (taeniopygia guttata) and other passerines. | the microarray technology has revolutionized biological research in the last decade. by monitoring the expression of many genes simultaneously, microarrays can elucidate gene function, as well as scan entire genomes for candidate genes encoding complex traits. however, because of high costs of sequencing and design, microarrays have largely been restricted to a few model species. cross-species microarray (csm) analyses, where microarrays are used for other species than the one they were designed ... | 2008 | 21585769 |
| male calling between courtship sequences in whitethroats: a way to counter intrusions from neighbouring rivals. | in whitethroats (sylvia communis) unmated and recently mated males often emit a specific call, the woid-call, after a sequence of courtship diving songs when the female is still present. in the experiments we tested the deterring function of the woid-calls.a simple playback experiment showed that unmated males react to woid-calls played at their territory border by initially increasing their distance to the speaker in an escape-like manner before they approached in the same way as to territorial ... | 2003 | 12829315 |
| the meaning of song repertoire size and song length to male whitethroats sylvia communis. | the importance of intrasexual differences in repertoire size was investigated in a playback experiment with whitethroats, sylvia communis. fourteen unmated territorial males received three treatments: a small repertoire, a large repertoire, and a small-elongated repertoire where the last couple of elements had been repeated to give songs of about the length of large repertoire playback. besides responding to the intruder's absolute repertoire size or song length, males might also take their own ... | 2001 | 11672934 |
| cultural ecology of whitethroat (sylvia communis) habitat management by farmers: field-boundary vegetation in lowland england. | field-boundary structure, its use by territorial whitethroats, and its management by farmers were investigated in southern wiltshire using a combination of fieldwork and a questionnaire survey. whitethroats favour wide herbaceous field boundary strips and low hedges. long-term cultural and short-term economic interests combine to influence farmers' management decisions. only farmers with game and conservation interests claimed to adopt field-boundary management that would benefit whitethroats, b ... | 2001 | 11505761 |
| a feeding experiment on migratory fuelling in whitethroats, sylvia communis | the influence of food abundance on whitethroats' behaviour when preparing for autumn migration was investigated in a feeding experiment on the island of gotland in the baltic. whitethroats attracted to a feeding site during post-juvenile moult attained a stable body mass 1.4 g higher than birds in natural conditions. this fuel load is well below the maximum that whitethroats could deposit. after maintaining stable body mass during moult, the whitethroats started to gain mass and thereafter soon ... | 1998 | 9480681 |
| the interaction of stars and magnetic field in the orientation system of night migrating birds. i. autumn experiments with european warblers (gen. sylvia). | in the autumn migration periods of 1971, 1972, and 1973 the orientation behavior in registration cages of sylvia communis, s. borin and s. cantillans was analyzed to find out what relative importance the birds assign to information from the stars and from the magnetic field for direction finding. we obtained the following results: 1. under clear sky in the local earth's magnetic field (control) the warblers showed directional preferences that corresponded to their expected migratory direction ba ... | 1975 | 1229769 |
| insights into avian incomplete dosage compensation: sex-biased gene expression coevolves with sex chromosome degeneration in the common whitethroat. | non-recombining sex chromosomes (y and w) accumulate deleterious mutations and degenerate. this poses a problem for the heterogametic sex (xy males; zw females) because a single functional gene copy often implies less gene expression and a potential imbalance of crucial expression networks. mammals counteract this by dosage compensation, resulting in equal sex chromosome expression in males and females, whereas birds show incomplete dosage compensation with significantly lower expression in fema ... | 2018 | 30049999 |
| does heavy metal exposure affect the condition of whitethroat (sylvia communis) nestlings? | anthropogenic pollution results in high concentrations of heavy metals in the environment. due to their persistence and a high potential for bioaccumulation, metals are a real threat for birds breeding in industrial areas. the aim of the present study has been to explore the contents of heavy metals (arsenic as, cadmium cd, chromium cr, copper cu, iron fe, nickel ni, lead pb and zinc zn) in the excreta of whitethroat (sylvia communis) nestlings living in polluted environment and to investigate t ... | 2018 | 29290059 |
| migratory birds as disseminators of ticks and the tick-borne pathogens borrelia bacteria and tick-borne encephalitis (tbe) virus: a seasonal study at ottenby bird observatory in south-eastern sweden. | birds can act as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens and can also disperse pathogen-containing ticks to both nearby and remote localities. the aims of this study were to estimate tick infestation patterns on migratory birds and the prevalence of different borrelia species and tick-borne encephalitis virus (tbev) in ticks removed from birds in south-eastern sweden. | 2020 | 33272317 |