Wing morphology covaries with migration distance in a highly aerial insectivorous songbird.

According to classical prediction of aerodynamic theory, birds and other powered fliers that migrate over long distances should have longer and more pointed wings than those that migrate less. However, the association between wing morphology and migratory behavior can be masked by contrasting selective pressures related to foraging behavior, habitat selection and predator avoidance, possibly at the cost of lower flight energetic efficiency. We studied the handwing morphology of Eurasian barn swallows from four populations representing a migration distance gradient.

Anthropogenic noise interacts with the predation risk assessment in a free-ranging bird.

Anthropogenic noise can affect a number of behavioral, physiological, and ecological aspects of animals from major taxonomic groups, raising serious conservation concerns. For example, noise pollution impacts communicative behavior and perception of signals, movements and distribution, as well as predator-prey interactions, such as hunting success or predator detection and predation risk assessment. We have carried out an experimental playback study, in which we investigated whether exposure to anthropogenic noise (sound of a tractor) distracts free-ranging barn swallows from paying attention to an approaching human "predator" (the "cognitive distraction" hypothesis), or whether noise leads to increased responsiveness to this "predator" (the "increased threat" hypothesis).

The Mitogenome Relationships and Phylogeography of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica).

The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) poses a number of fascinating scientific questions, including the taxonomic status of postulated subspecies. Here, we obtained and assessed the sequence variation of 411 complete mitogenomes, mainly from the European H. r.

Feather holes and flight performance in the barn swallow .

Feather holes are small (0.5-1 mm in diameter) deformities that appear on the vanes of flight feathers. Such deformities were found in many bird species, including galliforms and passerines.

[Radar as imaging tool in ecology and conservation biology].

Migrations and dispersal are among the most important ecological processes that shape ecosystems and influence our economy, health and safety. Movements of birds, bats and insects occur in a large spatial scale - regional, continental, or intercontinental. However, studies of these phenomena using classic methods are usually local.

Sexual Dimorphism and Population Differences in Structural Properties of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) Wing and Tail Feathers.

Sexual selection and aerodynamic forces affecting structural properties of the flight feathers of birds are poorly understood. Here, we compared the structural features of the innermost primary wing feather (P1) and the sexually dimorphic outermost (Ta6) and monomorphic second outermost (Ta5) tail feathers of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) from a Romanian population to investigate how sexual selection and resistance to aerodynamic forces affect structural differences among these feathers. Furthermore, we compared structural properties of Ta6 of barn swallows from six European populations.

Assessing the effects of climate on host-parasite interactions: a comparative study of European birds and their parasites.

Background: Climate change potentially has important effects on distribution, abundance, transmission and virulence of parasites in wild populations of animals.

Methodology/principal Finding: Here we analyzed paired information on 89 parasite populations for 24 species of bird hosts some years ago and again in 2010 with an average interval of 10 years. The parasite taxa included protozoa, feather parasites, diptera, ticks, mites and fleas.

Timing of arrival from spring migration is associated with flight performance in the migratory barn swallow.

Timing of arrival at the breeding grounds by migratory birds affects their mating success and access to superior resources, thus being a major factor associated with fitness. Much empirical work has been devoted to investigate the condition dependence of arrival sequence of migrants and characteristics of individuals that influence arrival time from migration. Surprisingly, there are no studies examining the relationship between flight performance of individual birds and their arrival time.

Vane emargination of outer tail feathers improves flight manoeuvrability in streamerless hirundines, Hirundinidae.

Recent studies have suggested that the proximal part of the swallow (Hirundo rustica) tail streamer appears to aid turning flight, as expected if streamers evolved initially purely through natural selection for enhanced manoeuvrability. However, the evolution of slender aerodynamically advantageous streamers is also predicted by an alternative hypothesis, which suggests that such a trait could develop primarily to ameliorate the aerodynamic cost of a long size-dimorphic tail. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we have investigated for the effect on manoeuvrability of trimming the tips of the outer tail feathers into short streamers, without lengthening these feathers, in two streamerless hirundine species--the house martin (Delichon urbica) and the sand martin (Riparia riparia).