Tropical birds benefit from more forest by rivers in oil palm areas

Date:  August 7, 2018

Source:  University of Kent

Summary:

Protected riverbank habitats within areas of oil palm cultivation can play a key role in reducing the negative impacts on tropical bird numbers but need to be increased in size, new research from the University of Kent has shown.

Converting rainforests to oil palm plantations has well documented impacts on tropical wildlife, including birds. But so far there has been little research on the value natural vegetation in river areas in plantations has for nature, although these are often preserved for water management as 'riparian reserves'.

However, a new study, led by the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology in the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent, in partnership with Universiti Malaysia Sabah, demonstrates that riparian areas can help to lessen the negative impacts of oil palm cultivation on bird communities.

The team counted birds across 28 rivers at a site in Malaysia and were able to examine their findings in relation to the width of the protected forest alongside the rivers. The study showed that large riparian reserves tend to support more bird species, with the largest ones hosting similar number as nearby forests.

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Hot temperatures could mean swan song for tropical birds

May 14, 2018, University of Queensland

Non-migratory songbirds could be under threat from a warming climate, according to the findings of a 15-year study.

The University of Queensland's Dr. Brad Woodworth, who led the study with researchers from the University of Windsor and University of Guelph in Canada, said the research showed that hot weather reduced the survival of tropical birds.

"Our study suggests that further increases in temperature may threaten the persistence of tropical animals accustomed to hot environments – unless they are able to shift to cooler areas," Dr. Woodworth said.

The research team studied a population of rufous-and-white wrens living in the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica.

Each year, they captured birds in mist nets, gave each animal a distinctive combination of coloured leg bands, and then surveyed the population to see which birds were still alive and which had perished.

"We found that wren survival did indeed vary with climate – so when temperatures were high, the wrens suffered higher mortality," he said.

The forests of north-western Costa Rica experience two seasons—a dry season from December to May, and a wet season with as much as three metres of rain from May to December.

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Tropical birds live longer than temperate counterparts

Date:  March 7, 2018

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

An international research team has found strong evidence that passerine birds near the equator live longer than their higher latitude counterparts.

Their findings, published today in the journal The Auk: Ornithological Advances, underscore the pervasiveness of broad latitudinal patterns in avian life history. The article summarizes six years of bird survey results from a tropical forest site near Manaus, at the center of the Amazon basin, and compares the Manaus results with findings from eleven other sites over a latitude span of more than sixty degrees across the Americas.

Continued  

Song experiments reveal 21 possible new tropical bird species

Date:  September 13, 2017

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Summary:

Birds often choose their mates based on song, making it a key factor in separating species. However, analyzing spectrograms can only tell us so much -- the characteristics that birds hone in on when identifying potential mates may not be the same ones scientists notice in audio recordings. A new study uses field experiments to 'ask the birds themselves' and uncovers as many as 21 previously unrecognized species.

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Tropical birds develop 'superfast' wing muscles for mating, not flying

Date: April 12, 2016

Source: eLife

Studies in a group of tropical birds have revealed one of the fastest limb muscles on record for any animal with a backbone. The muscle, which can move the wing at more than twice the speeds required for flying, has evolved in association with extravagant courtship displays that involve rapid limb movements, according to a paper to be published in the journal eLife.

The 'superfast' wing movements of male red-capped and golden-crowned manakins are undetectable to the human eye, and are about six to eight times faster than the 8-hertz (Hz) speed at which a sprinter, such as Olympian athlete Usain Bolt, moves their legs through the air in a 100-metre run.

"The discovery of the superfast wing muscle in these birds paves the way for further studies into what has to change, or what can change, in a muscle to make it drive faster movements," says first author Matthew Fuxjager, from Wake Forest University.

"This could be important for developing therapies for motor disorders, particularly those characterized by decreases in muscle performance that result from diseases such as cancer and HIV."

Many different species perform rapid limb movements as part of their courtship displays, from certain birds running across lake surfaces, to the unusual boxing displays of hares in March.

However, because muscle performance is limited by trade-offs between speed and force, it is unclear how animals develop the ability to generate both the swift movements involved in showy physical displays and the force needed to drive these movements.

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Could more intensive farming practices benefit tropical birds?

Date: September 3, 2015

Source: Cell Press

Summary: Does it help when farms share the land with birds and other animals? The short answer is 'no,' based on the diversity of bird species. If the goal is to preserve more bird species, representing a greater span of evolutionary history, then it's better to farm more intensively in some areas while leaving more blocks of land entirely alone. In other words, land-sparing wins out over land-sharing, experts say.

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Drivers of rich bird biodiversity in Neotropics identified

Date:

September 10, 2014

Source:

American Museum of Natural History

Summary:

New research challenges a commonly held view that explains how so many species of birds came to inhabit the Neotropics, an area rich in rain forest that extends from Mexico to the southernmost tip of South America. The study suggests that tropical bird speciation is not directly linked to geological and climate changes, as traditionally thought, but is driven by movements of birds across physical barriers that occur long after those landscapes' geological origins.

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Bill Oddie tweets for birds on Twitter

As the zoo's aviary woke up, Oddie and head bird-keeper Adrian Wallis were on hand to interpret the chirps of its tropical residents and summarise the results in 140 characters.

September sees a flurry of activity in the bird world as migration season begins, and so the event was held to mark the occasion.

According to Oddie, trained ears can pick up on the subtle differences that alter the meaning of a bird call.

"Every bird has a bit of a vocabulary. They have seven different areas of sound, and they will all have meaning. It might be a young bird asking for food, or a bird saying 'this is my territory'," he said.

"That Red Billed Toucan was calling for a girlfriend. Sounds to me like he is shouting for some company!" read one of Oddie's Tweets. Another said: "Very territorial call from the Scarlet Chested Sunbird - protecting its nest"

Watch video and read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9551273/Bill-Oddie-tweets-for-birds-on-Twitter.html