Distinctive and highly variable bird migration system revealed in Eastern Australia.

Our understanding of bird migration is heavily biased toward long-distance movements in the Northern Hemisphere, with only fragmented knowledge from the Southern Hemisphere. In Australia, while some species migrate, the timing and direction of large-scale, multi-species seasonal movements remain critically understudied due to the complexity of movement in this region and a lack of research personnel and infrastructure. It is still unclear whether there are pronounced and structured mass movements resembling those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Foraging enrichment alleviates oral repetitive behaviors in captive red-tailed black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii).

The relationship between inadequate foraging opportunities and the expression of oral repetitive behaviors has been well documented in many production animal species. However, this relationship has been less-well examined in zoo-housed animals, particularly avian species. The expression of oral repetitive behavior may embody a frustrated foraging response, and may therefore be alleviated with the provision of foraging enrichment.

Using weather radar to monitor the number, timing and directions of flying-foxes emerging from their roosts.

Knowledge of species' population trends is crucial when planning for conservation and management; however, this information can be difficult to obtain for extremely mobile species such as flying-foxes (Pteropus spp.; Chiroptera, Pteropodidae). In mainland Australia, flying-foxes are of particular management concern due their involvement in human-wildlife conflict, and their role as vectors of zoonotic diseases; and two species, the grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) and the spectacled flying-fox (P.

Substantial reduction in thermo-suitable microhabitat for a rainforest marsupial under climate change.

Increases in mean temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change increase the frequency and severity of temperature extremes. Although extreme temperature events are likely to become increasingly important drivers of species' response to climate change, the impacts are poorly understood owing mainly to a lack of understanding of species' physiological responses to extreme temperatures. The physiological response of Pseudochirops archeri (green ringtail possum) to temperature extremes has been well studied, demonstrating that heterothermy is used to reduce evaporative water loss at temperatures greater than 30°C.

Landscape complexity influences route-memory formation in navigating pigeons.

Observations of the flight paths of pigeons navigating from familiar locations have shown that these birds are able to learn and subsequently follow habitual routes home. It has been suggested that navigation along these routes is based on the recognition of memorized visual landmarks. Previous research has identified the effect of landmarks on flight path structure, and thus the locations of potentially salient sites.

Homing pigeons respond to time-compensated solar cues even in sight of the loft.

The sun has long been thought to guide bird navigation as the second step in a two-stage process, in which determining position using a map is followed by course setting using a compass, both over unfamiliar and familiar terrain. The animal's endogenous clock time-compensates the solar compass for the sun's apparent movement throughout the day, and this allows predictable deflections in orientation to test for the compass' influence using clock-shift manipulations. To examine the influence of the solar compass during a highly familiar navigational task, 24 clock-shifted homing pigeons were precision-tracked from a release site close to and in sight of their final goal, the colony loft.

Ecological and demographic correlates of helping behaviour in a cooperatively breeding bird.

The evolution of cooperation is a persistent problem for evolutionary biologists. In particular, understanding of the factors that promote the expression of helping behaviour in cooperatively breeding species remains weak, presumably because of the diverse nature of ecological and demographic drivers that promote sociality. In this study, we use data from a long-term study of a facultative cooperative breeder, the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus, to investigate the factors influencing annual variation in helping behaviour.

An experimental test of the information model for negotiation of biparental care.

Background: Theoretical modelling of biparental care suggests that it can be a stable strategy if parents partially compensate for changes in behaviour by their partners. In empirical studies, however, parents occasionally match rather than compensate for the actions of their partners. The recently proposed "information model" adds to the earlier theory by factoring in information on brood value and/or need into parental decision-making.

Objectively identifying landmark use and predicting flight trajectories of the homing pigeon using Gaussian processes.

Pigeons home along idiosyncratic habitual routes from familiar locations. It has been suggested that memorized visual landmarks underpin this route learning. However, the inability to experimentally alter the landscape on large scales has hindered the discovery of the particular features to which birds attend.

Consequences of 'load-lightening' for future indirect fitness gains by helpers in a cooperatively breeding bird.

1. Helpers that invest energy in provisioning the offspring of related individuals stand to gain indirect fitness benefits from doing so. First, if the helper's effort is additional to that of the parents (additive) the productivity of the current breeding attempt can be increased.

Flight dynamics of Cory's shearwater foraging in a coastal environment.

Flight dynamics theories are influenced by two major topics: how birds adapt their flight to cope with heterogeneous habitats, and whether birds plan to use the wind field or simply experience it. The aim of this study was to understand the flight dynamics of free-flying Cory's shearwaters in relation to the wind characteristics on the coastal upwelling region of continental Portugal. We deployed recently miniaturised devices-global positioning system loggers to collect precise and detailed information on birds' positions and motions.

Pigeons combine compass and landmark guidance in familiar route navigation.

How do birds orient over familiar terrain? In the best studied avian species, the homing pigeon (Columba livia), two apparently independent primary mechanisms are currently debated: either memorized visual landmarks provide homeward guidance directly, or birds rely on a compass to home from familiar locations. Using miniature Global Positioning System tracking technology and clock-shift procedures, we set sun-compass and landmark information in conflict, showing that experienced birds can accurately complete their memorized routes by using landmarks alone. Nevertheless, we also find that route following is often consistently offset in the expected compass direction, faithfully reproducing the shape of the track, but in parallel.

From compromise to leadership in pigeon homing.

A central problem faced by animals traveling in groups is how navigational decisions by group members are integrated, especially when members cannot assess which individuals are best informed or have conflicting information or interests . Pigeons are now known to recapitulate faithfully their individually distinct habitual routes home , and this provides a novel paradigm for investigating collective decisions during flight under varying levels of interindividual conflict. Using high-precision GPS tracking of pairs of pigeons, we found that if conflict between two birds' directional preferences was small, individuals averaged their routes, whereas if conflict rose over a critical threshold, either the pair split or one of the birds became the leader.

An edge-detection approach to investigating pigeon navigation.

This study brings together work in pattern recognition and animal behaviour. By applying algorithms in pattern recognition, we examined how visual landscape information influences pigeons' homing behaviour. We used an automated procedure (Canny edge detector) to extract edges from an aerial image of the experimental terrain.

Homing pigeons develop local route stereotypy.

The mechanisms used by homing pigeons (Columba livia) to navigate homeward from distant sites have been well studied, yet the mechanisms underlying navigation within, and mapping of, the local familiar area have been largely neglected. In the local area pigeons pote ntially have access to a powerful navigational aid--a memorized landscape map. Current opinion suggests that landmarks are used only to recognize a familiar start position and that the goalward route is then achieved solely using compass orientation.

Familiar route loyalty implies visual pilotage in the homing pigeon.

Wide-ranging animals, such as birds, regularly traverse large areas of the landscape efficiently in the course of their local movement patterns, which raises fundamental questions about the cognitive mechanisms involved. By using precision global-positioning-system loggers, we show that homing pigeons (Columba livia) not only come to rely on highly stereotyped yet surprisingly inefficient routes within the local area but are attracted directly back to their individually preferred routes even when released from novel sites off-route. This precise route loyalty demonstrates a reliance on familiar landmarks throughout the flight, which was unexpected under current models of avian navigation.