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,...
Sex-specific effects of social complexity and competitive interactions on cognitive performance in Budgerigars
Available online 14 January 2026
The social intelligence hypothesis posits that complex social interactions drive cognitive evolution in animals. However, empirical support remains inconsistent, likely because most studies rely on...
Unraveling the spatial patterns and driving mechanisms of avian functional assemblages in the agro-pastoral ecosystems of the Tibetan Plateau
Available online 12 January 2026
China’s new national park system prioritizes the conservation of large-scale ecosystems to maintain ecological integrity, exemplified by Qilian Mountain National Park (QMNP) in northwestern China. QMNP...
Estradiol acutely modifies singing patterns via modulating the synaptic activity of arcopallium in Zebra Finches
Available online 9 January 2026
Songbirds serve as an appealing animal model for evaluating the hormonal influences on the regulation of fine motor skills, particularly in relation to vocal production. The influence of estrogens on...
Duets encode morphological information from both partners in Rufous Horneros
December 2025
Acoustic signals in birds are often influenced by body and beak size (the morphological constraint hypothesis) and may also reflect the sender's condition (the condition dependence hypothesis). However,...
Density dependence and weather drive dabbling duck spatiotemporal distributions and intercontinental migration
December 2025
Understanding migratory waterfowl spatiotemporal distributions is important because, in addition to their economic and cultural value, wild waterfowl can be infectious reservoirs of highly pathogenic...
Multidimensional nestedness patterns and underlying processes of bird assemblages in the Zhoushan Archipelago, China
December 2025
Nestedness is one of the important patterns in island biogeography, community ecology and conservation biology. However, most previous nestedness studies focus on the taxonomic dimension while neglecting...
Avian phylogenetic and functional diversity and their influencing factors in urban parks of Nanjing, China
December 2025
The acceleration of global urbanization has caused habitat loss, fragmentation, and decrease of habitat quality, often leading to a decline in biodiversity. However, most previous urbanization studies...
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...
A systematic review of avian response to urbanization in China: Research trends, current insights, and future directions
December 2025
Urbanization is one of the most extreme forms of land-use alteration that is advancing across the world with unprecedented speed. As the largest developing country, China has developed a unique path...
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...
Canalization of globins in the adaptive evolution of birds
December 2025
The globin superfamily, central to oxygen (O2) cascade dynamics, exemplifies how canalization—evolutionary stabilization of phenotypic traits—enables vertebrates to thrive in extreme environments. In...
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...
Effects of night lighting on avian cognitive function: Mechanisms involving neurodegeneration, metabolic dysregulation and neuroinflammatory responses
December 2025
The rapid expansion of urbanization has led to widespread exposure of wild birds to intensive light at night (LAN). While previous studies have established LAN-induced cognitive impairment in birds,...
Dynamic evolution of olfactory receptor genes in the Turkey Vulture and Black Vulture
December 2025
Olfactory receptors (ORs), the largest vertebrate multigene family, exhibit wide copy number variation among taxa, ranging from ∼100 to 4000. The ecological importance of smell has been suggested to...