Nesting Bird “Host Funnel” Increases Mosquito-Bird Contact Rate

Cold temperature increases winter fruit removal rate of a bird -

We tested the hypothesis that winter removal rates of h i t s of wax myrtle, ~Vfjricu cerifern, are higher in colder winters. Over a 9-year period, we monitored M. cerifkru fruit crops in 13 0.1-ha study plots in South Carolina, U.S.A. Peak ripeness occurred in November, whereas peak removal occurred in the coldest months, December and January. Mean time to fruit removal within study plots was ...

Bird Mite Infestation

Mites in the genus Dermanyssus are external parasites of birds, rodents and other mammals. The most common member of this group is the Chicken Mite that infests poultry roosts and wild bird nests. The chicken mite feeds primarily at night when the birds return the nest or roast area. They hide during the day in nearby cracks, crevices and other protected sites. These mites are known to infest h...

Contact allergy to peanuts in bird feed.

Winter severity predicts the timing of host shifts in the mosquito Culex erraticus.

In temperate regions, seasonal epidemics of many mosquito-borne viruses are triggered when mosquito populations shift from feeding on avian to mammalian hosts. We investigated effects of temperature on the timing of bird-to-mammal shifts using an 8 year dataset of blood-meals from a mosquito (Culex erraticus) in Alabama, USA. As expected, Cx. erraticus shifted from avian to mammalian hosts each...

Environmental disturbance increases social connectivity in a passerine bird

Individual level response to natural and anthropogenic disturbance represents an increasingly important, but as yet little understood, component of animal behavior. Disturbance events often alter habitat, which in turn can modify behaviors of individuals in affected areas, including changes in habitat use and associated changes in social structure. To better understand these relationships, we i...