Genome sequence of phage CandC.

We report the discovery and genome sequence of CandC, a lytic bacteriophage with siphovirus morphology. CandC was isolated from a soil sample from Plattsburgh, NY, USA (Fall 2021). It has a genome size of 62,344 bp with 106 predicted protein-encoding genes, 30 of which are assigned putative functions.

Artificial night light and anthropogenic noise interact to influence bird abundance over a continental scale.

The extent of artificial night light and anthropogenic noise (i.e., "light" and "noise") impacts is global and has the capacity to threaten species across diverse ecosystems.

Sensory pollutants alter bird phenology and fitness across a continent.

Expansion of anthropogenic noise and night lighting across our planet is of increasing conservation concern. Despite growing knowledge of physiological and behavioural responses to these stimuli from single-species and local-scale studies, whether these pollutants affect fitness is less clear, as is how and why species vary in their sensitivity to these anthropic stressors. Here we leverage a large citizen science dataset paired with high-resolution noise and light data from across the contiguous United States to assess how these stimuli affect reproductive success in 142 bird species.

A novel cellular structure in the retina of insectivorous birds.

The keen visual systems of birds have been relatively well-studied. The foundations of avian vision rest on their cone and rod photoreceptors. Most birds use four cone photoreceptor types for color vision, a fifth cone for achromatic tasks, and a rod for dim-light vision.

Spatial and Temporal Resolution of the Visual System of the Anna's Hummingbird () Relative to Other Birds.

Hummingbirds are an emerging model for studies of the visual guidance of flight. However, basic properties of their visual systems, such as spatial and temporal visual resolution, have not been characterized. We measured both the spatial and temporal visual resolution of Anna's hummingbirds using behavioral experiments and anatomical estimates.

The Orientation of Visual Space from the Perspective of Hummingbirds.

Vision is a key component of hummingbird behavior. Hummingbirds hover in front of flowers, guide their bills into them for foraging, and maneuver backwards to undock from them. Capturing insects is also an important foraging strategy for most hummingbirds.

The Hawk-Eyed Songbird: Retinal Morphology, Eye Shape, and Visual Fields of an Aerial Insectivore.

Swallows are a unique group of songbirds because they are active-pursuit predators that execute all aspects of hunting prey in flight: search, detection, pursuit, and capture. We show that swallows have evolved a visual system that is unlike that of any other studied songbird. Swallows have a bifoveate retina that provides sharp lateral and frontal vision, an unusually long eye that enhances spatial resolution, a large posterior blind area, and a narrow binocular field.

Avian binocular vision: It's not just about what birds can see, it's also about what they can't.

With the exception of primates, most vertebrates have laterally placed eyes. Binocular vision in vertebrates has been implicated in several functions, including depth perception, contrast discrimination, etc. However, the blind area in front of the head that is proximal to the binocular visual field is often neglected.

Does retinal configuration make the head and eyes of foveate birds move?

Animals move their heads and eyes to compensate for movements of the body and background, search, fixate, and track objects visually. Avian saccadic head/eye movements have been shown to vary considerably between species. We tested the hypothesis that the configuration of the retina (i.

FOVEA: a new program to standardize the measurement of foveal pit morphology.

The fovea is one of the most studied retinal specializations in vertebrates, which consists of an invagination of the retinal tissue with high packing of cone photoreceptors, leading to high visual resolution. Between species, foveae differ morphologically in the depth and width of the foveal pit and the steepness of the foveal walls, which could influence visual perception. However, there is no standardized methodology to measure the contour of the foveal pit across species.

Vision in two cyprinid fish: implications for collective behavior.

Many species of fish rely on their visual systems to interact with conspecifics and these interactions can lead to collective behavior. Individual-based models have been used to predict collective interactions; however, these models generally make simplistic assumptions about the sensory systems that are applied without proper empirical testing to different species. This could limit our ability to predict (and test empirically) collective behavior in species with very different sensory requirements.

Oculomotor strategy of an avian ground forager: tilted and weakly yoked eye saccades.

Many bird species are capable of large saccadic eye movements that can result in substantial shifts in gaze direction and complex changes to their visual field orientation. In the absence of visual stimuli, birds make spontaneous saccades that follow an endogenous oculomotor strategy. We used new eye-tracking technology specialized for small birds to study the oculomotor behavior of an open-habitat, ground-foraging songbird, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris).

Vision in avian emberizid foragers: maximizing both binocular vision and fronto-lateral visual acuity.

Avian species vary in their visual system configuration, but previous studies have often compared single visual traits between two to three distantly related species. However, birds use different visual dimensions that cannot be maximized simultaneously to meet different perceptual demands, potentially leading to trade-offs between visual traits. We studied the degree of inter-specific variation in multiple visual traits related to foraging and anti-predator behaviors in nine species of closely related emberizid sparrows, controlling for phylogenetic effects.

Looking above the prairie: localized and upward acute vision in a native grassland bird.

Visual systems of open habitat vertebrates are predicted to have a band of acute vision across the retina (visual streak) and wide visual coverage to gather information along the horizon. We tested whether the eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna) had this visual configuration given that it inhabits open grasslands. Contrary to our expectations, the meadowlark retina has a localized spot of acute vision (fovea) and relatively narrow visual coverage.