Does solar irradiation drive community assembly of vulture plumage microbiotas?

Background: Stereotyped sunning behaviour in birds has been hypothesized to inhibit keratin-degrading bacteria but there is little evidence that solar irradiation affects community assembly and abundance of plumage microbiota. The monophyletic New World vultures (Cathartiformes) are renowned for scavenging vertebrate carrion, spread-wing sunning at roosts, and thermal soaring. Few avian species experience greater exposure to solar irradiation.

Chemical effects of diceCT staining protocols on fluid-preserved avian specimens.

Diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT) techniques allow visualization of soft tissues of fluid-preserved specimens in three dimensions without dissection or histology. Two popular diceCT stains, iodine-potassium iodide (I2KI) dissolved in water and elemental iodine (I2) dissolved in 100% ethanol (EtOH), yield striking results. Despite the widespread use of these stains in clinical and biological fields, the molecular mechanisms that result in color change and radiopacity attributed to iodine staining are poorly understood.

A distinctive new species of flowerpecker (Passeriformes: Dicaeidae) from Borneo.

The enigmatic 'Spectacled Flowerpecker'-a probable new bird species from the island of Borneo-was first sighted in the Danum Valley of Sabah, Malaysia in 2009. However, the absence of a holotype specimen has prevented its formal scientific description. Since then only a handful of reports from widely disparate localities across the island have emerged, all from lowland sites and often in close association with fruiting mistletoe.

Two new picobiin mite species (Acari: Cheyletoidea: Syringophilidae) parasitizing passerine birds in Guyana.

Two new picobiin mite species (Cheyletoidea: Syringophilidae) are described from passeriform birds in Guyana, Rafapicobia automoli sp. nov. parasitizing two furnariid species Automolus ochrolaemus (Tschudi) (type host) and Automolus rufipileatus (Pelzeln) (Passeriformes: Furnariidae) and Neopicobia herbicolae sp.

New species of the genus Picobia (Cheyletoidea: Syringophilidae) parasitizing tyrannid birds (Passeriformes: Tyrannidae).

Three new quill mite species of the genus Picobia Haller (Cheyletoidea: Syringophilidae) are described from 6 host species of the family Tyrannidae (Passeriformes), P. ochoi sp. nov.