Low-density residential development (i.e., exurban development) is often embedded within a matrix of protected areas and natural amenities, raising concern about its ecological consequences. Forest-dependent species are particularly susceptible to human settlement even at low housing densities typical of exurban areas. However, few studies have examined the response of forest birds to this incr...

During a study of migrating land birds in 1987, we examined over 9,200 individual birds representing 99 species from the Saint Croix River Valley, a Lyme disease-endemic area of east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. We found that 250 deer tick (Ixodes dammini) larvae and nymphs infested 58 birds from 15 migrant species; 56 ticks (22.4%) were positive for the Lyme disease spirochete...

The conservation of migratory birds poses a fundamental challenge, their requires coordinated action across the hemisphere, but those actions must be designed and implemented locally. To address this we describe multilevel framework for linking broad-scale, full annual cycle prioritizations to local birds. We developed hemisphere-scale spatial that breed in six different ecosystems North Americ...

Nest attentiveness (percentage of time spent on the nest) during incubation represents a parent-offspring conflict; incubating birds must balance a trade-off between caring for embryos by staying on the nest versus caring for themselves by getting off the nest to forage. For species in which females are the sole incubator, males can potentially affect this trade-off and increase nest attentiven...

A mathematical model which incorporates the spatial dispersal and interaction dynamics of mistletoes and birds is derived and studied to gain insights of the spatial heterogeneity in abundance of mistletoes. Fickian diffusion and chemotaxis are used to model the random movement of birds and the aggregation of birds due to the attraction of mistletoes, respectively. The spread of mistletoes by b...

The impacts of potential linear barriers such as roads, highways, and power lines on rainforest fauna are poorly understood. In the central Brazilian Amazon, we compared the frequency of local movements (<300 m long) of understory birds within intact forest and across a 30-to 40-m-wide road over a 2-year period. Rainforest had regenerated along some road verges, to the extent that a nearly comp...

Artificially creating social stimuli may be an effective tool for facilitating settlement by rare and/or declining species into suitable habitat. However, the potential consequences for other community members have not been explored and should be considered when evaluating the overall utility of using such management strategies. I report on nontarget, community-wide effects that occurred when m...

0003-3472 2012 The Association for the Study of A http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.11.014 In 1980, Paul J. Greenwoodpublished a reviewof dispersal in birds andmammals that has beenwidelycited. The review evaluated possible explanations for sex-biased natal dispersal. It concluded that female-biased dispersal occurred in socially monogamous birds because males were using territorial reso...

A striking feature of the vertebrate brain is its plasticity. In high-latitude vertebrates, seasonal plasticity of the brain is driven by ubiquitous photoperiod cues and therefore is highly predictable and synchronous across extensive geographic ranges. A pronounced example of seasonal brain plasticity occurs in the nuclei that regulate song behavior in songbirds. These nuclei are larger in bre...

Why and how birds in colonies often breed in striking synchrony is an unsolved question. In colonies, conspecific birds often destroy eggs and kill chicks, either intentionally or not. We propose that social tranquillity at the time of laying can be achieved if a bird's stress level is partly determined by the agitation of its neighbours. Moreover, we propose that this local process, together w...