Half of a forest bird community infected with haemosporidian parasites

Introduction Parasites play important roles in ecosystems. Through their interactions with host and vector species, they are capable of changing the behavior population dynamics shape entire communities. Over past years, many studies have acknowledged role parasitism for populations communities discovered regulatory functions vertebrate populations. Although birds a well-studied group vertebrates, infection patterns endoparasites at community level not fully understood. Some bird species families known to higher susceptibility certain than others, which may be driven by abundance community. Methods course four consecutive breeding seasons (2019–2022), we monitored endoparasite infections temperate forest ecosystem. We sampled 483 belonging 29 Palearctic investigated prevalence blood parasites (haemosporidian parasites) Trichomonas spp. using molecular methods. Results found an overall 48.1% haemosporidians 53 genetic lineages three genera Haemoproteus , Leucocytozoon Plasmodium While Turdidae (94%) Paridae (76%) showed high haemosporidians, Certhiidae, Picidae were infected (0%). Host–parasite network analysis detected variability interactions. Infections observed Discussion that lineage diversity haemosporidian differed between avian parasite family could serve as predictor diversity. To further assess consequences these host–parasite communities, future research should aim disentangle pathways different ecosystems while also considering environmental factors.