Cell-autonomous determination of sex dimorphism in neuromodulation of a gynandromorphic Zebra Finch
March 2026
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...
Microgeographic variation in the songs of an endemic Hawaiian honeycreeper
March 2026
Many bird species are known to differ in their vocal repertoires between populations across a range of geographic scales. This is generally assumed to be caused by acoustic drift and social learning...
Spatiotemporal variation in potential gosling development windows across Mongolian Plateau in relation to climate change
March 2026
Climate change is altering vegetation phenology, differentially affecting food quality and availability for the gosling development (and therefore fitness) of migratory herbivores, especially those...
Decadal banding efforts pay off: Assessing Chinese Crested Tern conservation through resighting data
March 2026
The critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini, CCT) and its common flocking companion, the Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii, GCT), have been the focus of targeted recovery...
Diversity and prevalence of avian haemosporidians across Afrotropical urban and non-urban habitats
March 2026
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...
Spatiotemporal variation and driving mechanisms of nest predation on Spotted Doves along an urbanization gradient
March 2026
Nest predation is a critical driver of avian reproductive success, yet its response to urbanization remains controversial. Using infrared camera traps to monitor 133 artificial nests and 32 natural...
CDA-Net: Cross dimensional attention network for wetland bird detection
March 2026
Monitoring waterbirds is vital for evaluating the ecological health of wetlands, and object detection offers an automated solution for identifying birds in monitoring imagery. However, conventional...
Avian neuronal morphology reveals pallial adaptations in Pigeons (Columba livia)
March 2026
Avian cognitive abilities rival those of primates. These capacities have been linked to high pallial neuronal density and prefrontal cortex-like dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR) circuitry. Although the...
Spatiotemporal dynamics of migratory shorebird populations in Korean coastal wetlands within the East Asian–Australasian Flyway
March 2026
Shorebirds migrate long-distances along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF), exhibiting distinct spatiotemporal fluctuations in population dynamics. Because of habitat degradation and population...
Phylogenomic insights into the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of penduline tits (Remiz spp.)
March 2026
Penduline tits (genus Remiz) are small passerines distributed across Europe, Central and East Asia, and North Africa, renowned for their elaborate nests and unusually diverse mating systems. However,...
How do wintering waterbird communities respond to polder restoration in a Ramsar wetland of the Yangtze River Basin, China? A functional and phylogenetic perspective
Available online 5 February 2026
Wetland restoration has been increasingly implemented to compensate for the substantial loss of natural wetlands, and consideration of multidimensional biodiversity is essential for evaluating how restoration...
Landscape and habitat effects on functional and phylogenetic diversity and structure of bird communities in fragmented habitats within an urban landscape, Southwest China
Available online 2 February 2026
Understanding how landscape and habitat characteristics shape species diversity and community structure in fragmented habitats offers insights into the impact of fragmentation on biodiversity. However,...
Urbanization enhances the breeding performance but does not affect the reproductive success of Chinese Blackbird (Turdus mandarinus)
Available online 2 February 2026
Urbanization provides novel habitats for bird species, while simultaneously posing numerous threats to them. Although several bird species have successfully adapted to urbanization, the underlying adaptation...
Rapid male plumage evolution drives sexual dichromatism in Ficedula flycatchers
December 2025
Sexual dichromatism represents a major form of phenotypic differentiation between the sexes in birds, and its evolution is likely shaped by the interplay between sexual and natural selection. The genus...
Species status and genetic isolation in the Subalpine Warbler complex: Insights from mitochondrial DNA analysis
December 2025
This study investigates the genetic differentiation and gene flow within the Subalpine Warbler (Curruca cantillans) complex using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. We focused on three primary populations...
Importance of surrounding landscape features in explaining wintering waterbird diversity and community assembly in Jiangsu's inland lake wetlands
December 2025
As one of the important wintering areas along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, wetlands in the Yangtze River floodplain face threats from land-use changes, yet its effects on wintering waterbirds...
Phylogenetic relatedness overshadows acoustic similarity to regulate responses toward unfamiliar mobbing calls in Masked Laughingthrushes
December 2025
Recognition of heterospecific mobbing calls can occur through both innate and learned mechanisms, with the former often explained by two main hypotheses: the acoustic similarity hypothesis, which emphasizes...
Modeling the effects of urban park 3D environmental features on bird diversity with interpretable machine learning: A case study of Harbin, northeastern China
December 2025
Urban parks are essential habitats for birds in densely built environments. However, most studies focus only on horizontal features, overlooking the role of integrated vertical structures. Using bird...
How many birds are there in Guangdong Province, China?
December 2025
Estimating bird abundance is key to assess threats, and to prioritize conservation actions. However, few studies focus on this topic, particularly in developing countries, which may hamper conservation...
Waterbird image recognition using lightweight deep learning in wetland environment
December 2025
Wetland waterbirds serve as key ecological indicators for assessing habitat quality and biodiversity. Accurate identification of waterbird species is a cornerstone of long-term ecological monitoring....
Birds of a feather: Comprehensive plumage colour analysis for a revised subspecies classification of the Chestnut-winged Babbler (Cyanoderma erythropterum) species complex
December 2025
Quantitative analysis of colouration is an essential tool for subspecies delimitation but has always posed a challenge in avian taxonomy. In this study on the Chestnut-winged Babbler (Cyanoderma erythropterum)...
Impacts of prolonged dry season and artificial food supply on the wintering spatial distribution of Siberian Cranes: Implications for conservation
December 2025
Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, is a critical wintering ground for most of the global Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) population. However, increasingly prolonged dry seasons have degraded...
Chinese provincial-level new records for 96 resident bird species reveal poleward range shifts
December 2025
Anthropogenic climate change is altering species distributions globally. While species distributions are expected to shift to higher latitudes and elevations under global warming, empirical evidence...