The heritability of the hematocrit in adult, breeding pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca is examined in a southern European population across seven years to see the consistency, or lack thereof, of patterns found with the trait at fledgling age where no significant heritability could be detected. While the across-years repeatability of the trait in adult, breeding birds was low but significant...

During the years 1989-91, 1997-2003, and 2005-07, we studied how emissions from the Middle Urals copper smelter affect snail availability and reproduction of free-living pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). We counted snail shells dropped in nests and analysed food samples of nestlings. Pied flycatchers brought to nestlings fewer shells in heavily polluted sites compared to background sites, ...

Forty-four new lichen species and one lichenicolous fungus have been identified as a result of studies the biota Franz Josef Land archipelago. Bryocaulon hyperboreum was reported for first time from Russia. Gyalecta hypoleuca Umbilicaria maculata were in Arctic. Arctocetraria andrejevii, Brodoa oroarctica, Candelariella borealis, Cercidospora stereocaulorum, Massalongia carnosa, Miriquidica nig...

Hollow-dwelling passerine birds were tested for UV surface colour discrimination by using the instinct to bring food to nestlings that makes a bird search for the nest under changing conditions. The experiments were carried out on breeding pairs of pied flycatcher (Muscicapa hypoleuca), great tit (Parus major) and tree sparrow (Passer montanus) in the wild by the method of alternative choice of...

While this may be true in many passerines, mainly ground-nesting species with short fledgling periods, we show here that prevalences may be detected as early as 13 days of age in a cavity-nesting passerine. Prevalences and intensities of hematozoa in nestling birds may merit further study, as both parameters are relatively easy to quantify in smears of peripheral blood in bird species such as t...

Bird populations are known to be affected by climate and habitat change. Here we assess on a continental scale the relationship of a bird population index for the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) with spatially explicit long-term climate data. For 1971-2001 and using multiple linear regression and AIC selection methods for candidate models we found that log-transformed 30 year long-term fal...

The relationships between parental effort, offspring growth, and offspring blood parasitemias are poorly known. We examined the effect of parental effort on offspring size and prevalence of trypanosomes in peripheral blood of nestling Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca aged 13 days. Trypanosome infections were likely to be shared by siblings, indicating the role of a common environment and/or ...

Reciprocity is fundamental to cooperative behaviour and has been verified in theoretical models. However, there is still limited experimental evidence for reciprocity in non-primate species. Our results more decisively clarify that reciprocity with a tit-for-tat enforcement strategy can occur among breeding pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca separate from considerations of byproduct mutualism....

Empirical studies have shown that animals often focus on short-term benefits under conditions of predation risk, which reduces the likelihood that they will cooperate with others. However, some theoretical studies predict that animals in adverse conditions should not avoid cooperation with their neighbors since it may decrease individual risks and increase long-term benefits of reciprocal help....

Past mining and smelting activities have resulted in metal polluted environments all over the world, but long-term monitoring data is often scarce, especially in higher trophic levels. In this study we used bird (Parus major and Ficedula hypoleuca) excrement to monitor metal pollution in the terrestrial environment following 16 years of continuously reduced emissions from a copper/nickel smelte...