Social, environmental, and developmental factors affect the microbiota of barn owls (Tyto alba) in a cross-fostering experiment.

Background: Species host diverse microbial communities that can impact their digestion and health, which has led to much interest in understanding the factors that influence their microbiota. We studied the developmental, environmental, and social factors that influence the microbiota of nestling barn owls (Tyto alba) through a partial cross-fostering experiment that manipulated the social and nest environment of the nestlings. We then examined the nestling microbiota before and three weeks after the exchange of nestlings between nests, along with the microbiota of the adults at the nest and nestlings in unmanipulated nests.

Ecological, genetic and geographical divergence explain differences in colouration among sunbird species (Nectariniidae).

How extravagant ornamental traits evolve is a key question in evolutionary biology. Bird plumages are among the most elaborate ornaments, displaying almost all colours of the rainbow. Why and how birds evolved to be so colourful remains an open question with multiple and sometimes competing hypotheses.

Comparative Genomics Supports Ecologically Induced Selection as a Putative Driver of Banded Penguin Diversification.

The relative importance of genetic drift and local adaptation in facilitating speciation remains unclear. This is particularly true for seabirds, which can disperse over large geographic distances, providing opportunities for intermittent gene flow among distant colonies that span the temperature and salinity gradients of the oceans. Here, we delve into the genomic basis of adaptation and speciation of banded penguins, Galápagos (Spheniscus mendiculus), Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), Magellanic (Spheniscus magellanicus), and African penguins (Spheniscus demersus), by analyzing 114 genomes from the main 16 breeding colonies.

Climate cycling did not affect haplotype distribution in an abundant Southern African avian habitat generalist species, the familiar chat (Oenanthe familiaris).

Avian species diversity in Southern Africa is remarkably high, yet the mechanisms responsible for that diversity are poorly understood. While this is particularly true with respect to species endemic to the subregion, it is unclear as to how more broadly distributed African species may have colonized southern Africa. One process that may in part account for the high bird species diversity in southern Africa is a "species pump" model, wherein the region was repeatedly colonized by lineages from areas further north: a pattern related to climate cycling and the eastern African arid corridor.