0000000000114572
AUTHOR
Verónica Cortés
The Usefulness of Biometrics for the Study of Avian Connectivity within Europe. A Case Study with BlackcapsSylvia atricapillain Spain
Summary. The use of biometrics in studies of migratory connectivity is still relatively infrequent in Europe. This is partly due to the fact that biometrics is a less accurate tool when compared to ringing recovery data, or such techniques as stable isotope analyses, use of geolocators or satellite telemetry. Combination with one of these (recovery data) allows us to test the usefulness of biometrics in connectivity analyses, as well as to evaluate/quantify the influence of migratory behaviour on phenotypic traits such as flight morphology. We used historical recovery data, together with flight morphology data obtained from a consistent collection protocol during a three-year ringing progra…
Repeatability of Feather Mite Prevalence and Intensity in Passerine Birds
Understanding why host species differ so much in symbiont loads and how this depends on ecological host and symbiont traits is a major issue in the ecology of symbiosis. A first step in this inquiry is to know whether observed differences among host species are species-specific traits or more related with host-symbiont environmental conditions. Here we analysed the repeatability (R) of the intensity and the prevalence of feather mites to partition within- and among-host species variance components. We compiled the largest dataset so far available: 119 Paleartic passerine bird species, 75,944 individual birds, ca. 1.8 million mites, seven countries, 23 study years. Several analyses and appro…