Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Gianluca Lombardo, Nicola Rambaldi Migliore, Giulia Colombo, Marco Rosario Capodiferro, Giulio Formenti, Manuela Caprioli, Elisabetta Moroni, Leonardo Caporali, Hovirag Lancioni, Simona Secomandi, Guido Roberto Gallo, Alessandra Costanzo, Andrea Romano, Maria Garofalo, Cristina Cereda, Valerio Carelli, Lauren Gillespie, Yang Liu, Yosef Kiat, Alfonso Marzal, Cosme Lopez-Calderon, Javier Balbontin, Timothy A. Mousseau, Piotr Matyjasiak, Anders Pape Moller, Ornella Semino, Roberto Ambrosini, Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati, Diego Rubolini, Luca Ferretti, Alessandro Achilli, Luca Gianfranceschi, Anna Olivieri, Antonio Torroni
Summary: The study investigates the taxonomic status and geographical spread of the barn swallow by analyzing the sequence variation of mitochondrial genomes. It identifies subspecies-specific haplogroups and proposes a model for the worldwide spread of the species. The research also highlights the close link between the barn swallow, climate fluctuations, and human activities, suggesting its importance as an indicator for monitoring the impact of global changes on wildlife.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Masaru Hasegawa
Summary: The study investigates the function of nestling-like male courtship calls in male-male interactions, indicating that males attract females by mimicking immature individuals while avoiding interference from neighboring males.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Zoology
Alessandra Costanzo, Roberto Ambrosini, Marco Parolini, Manuela Caprioli, Simona Secomandi, Diego Rubolini, Leonida Fusani, Virginie Canoine
Summary: The study found that there was no significant change in adult erythrocyte telomere length between consecutive breeding seasons in barn swallows. Second-year individuals showed the highest increase in circulating CORT concentrations following restraint, and female stress response declined during the breeding season. Additionally, telomere shortening was associated with the stress response, suggesting that individual variation in stress response may affect telomere dynamics.
Article
Ornithology
Yu Liu, Li Tian, Zhuoya Zhou, Kai Gao, De Chen, Donglai Li, Yong Wang, Zhengwang Zhang
Summary: In this study, the Barn Swallow population in East Asia used the tolerance strategy, rather than resistance, to defend against nest mites. We found that males with more extravagant sexually selected traits had weaker resistance to the parasites. Overall, the Barn Swallow population showed strong tolerance against the parasite and it did not significantly affect reproductive success.
Article
Ecology
Zbyszek Boratynski, Timothy A. Mousseau, Anders Pape Moller
Summary: The study found that the body temperature of wild barn swallows inhabiting areas with radioactive contamination varies with exposure levels; individual characteristics and phenology modulate the radiosensitivity of body temperature; birds with low body condition, high capture risk, and those captured late during the day but early in the season showed increased radiosensitivity and up-regulation of body temperature.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ornithology
Cosme Lopez-Calderon, Sergio Magallanes, Alfonso Marzal, Javier Balbontin
Summary: This study used light-level geolocators to describe the migration system of Barn Swallows breeding in southwestern Spain and wintering across west Africa. The swallows were found to spend pre-migration time in southern Spain and northern Morocco during summer, and to start their autumn migration in August. They refueled in northwestern Morocco and southern Mali before arriving at their wintering areas across Ivory Coast. After wintering, they started their spring migration in late January, stopping over in Senegal and Mauritania before returning to Spain in February. One individual even traveled to England during autumn migration before spending a short wintering period in northwestern Spain.
ARDEOLA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ornithology
Ava-Rose F. Beech, Mattheus C. Santos, Emily B. Smith, Ben W. Berejka, Yujie Liu, Toshi Tsunekage, Iris I. Levin
Summary: Ecological and life-history factors, as well as brood parasitism, contribute to variation in egg phenotype within a species. Barn Swallows laid eggs with high intraclutch repeatability in size, shape, and maculation, although last-laid eggs had fewer spots on the eggshell. The study used direct measurements and custom software to examine interclutch and intraclutch variation, and found that low intraclutch variation in maculation may allow females to recognize their clutch, which is adaptive for colonial nesting species.
Article
Ecology
Mattia Pancerasa, Roberto Ambrosini, Andrea Romano, Diego Rubolini, David W. Winkler, Renato Casagrandi
Summary: Barn swallows migrating from south-central Europe mainly stay in the Congo basin during non-breeding period, showing a clockwise loop migration pattern. Migration speed and route are influenced by previous migration events, with limited sex-related variability.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alessandra Costanzo, Michela Sturini, Federica Maraschi, Manuela Caprioli, Andrea Romano, Simone Vanni, Marco Parolini, Antonella Profumo, Diego Rubolini, Roberto Ambrosini, Luca Canova
Summary: Bird feathers can be used as bioindicators to assess the presence of contaminants in the environment, and the concentrations of trace elements in the feathers of barn swallow nestlings can indicate the local level of contamination. The study found differences in trace element concentrations between nestlings grown in areas amended or not amended with sewage sludge, suggesting that barn swallow nestlings can be reliable sentinels for monitoring local variation in the environmental occurrence of trace elements.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Masaru Hasegawa, Emi Arai, Masahiko Nakamura
Summary: The study found that male barn swallows with shorter tarsi started breeding earlier than those with longer tarsi when controlling for body size. This selective advantage of short-legged males explains the reversed sexual dimorphism in tarsus length in this short-legged species.
JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Montague H. C. Neate-Clegg, Morgan W. Tingley
Summary: This study used a large amount of bird banding data to investigate the changes in spring and fall migratory phenology for different sexes and age classes of bird species. The results showed that adult males arrived first in spring, while immature females arrived last, consistent with protandry. In the fall, there was little difference between sexes, but adults tended to depart earlier than juveniles. Additionally, the study found that male birds were advancing their phenology at a faster rate compared to females, causing the gap between male and female arrival times to widen over time.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ornithology
J. F. Altenburg, B. van den Brink, T. J. Boudewijn, J. Drop, J. M. van Muiswinkel, P. van Horssen
Summary: This study examines the breeding patterns of Barn Swallows in the Netherlands over a 27-year period and finds that the laying date of first and second broods has advanced over time. However, the number of fledglings per successful breeding attempt remained constant. Surprisingly, neither large scale nor local weather parameters could explain these changes. The study highlights the importance of long-term and large-scale research on key species to understand the potential effects of climate change.
Article
Parasitology
Michelle L. Michalski, Emily Kadolph, Constance L. Roderick, Julia S. Lankton, Rebecca A. Cole
Summary: Several mortality events involving barn swallows and cliff swallows occurred in the Upper Midwestern states in 2017 and 2018, with barn swallows primarily dying from emaciation and air sac nematodiasis, while cliff swallows had lesions consistent with blunt force trauma from suspected car impacts. Sequence analysis of the partial 18S rRNA gene indicated a link between morphological specimens and DNA sequence data for D. obtusa.
JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Andrew Gougherty
Summary: In the Northern Hemisphere, many species in the southern populations have greater genetic diversity than those in the northern populations, which is believed to be the result of migration northward after the last glacial maximum. However, it is unclear whether this pattern applies to North American trees. To address this, the author collected population genetics data for 73 North American tree species and found that there were no general geographic patterns in genetic diversity. The study concludes that North American trees exhibit complex and individualistic patterns of genetic diversity that cannot be explained solely by dispersal traits or range characteristics.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Julia E. Put, Greg W. Mitchell, Nancy A. Mahony, Jeffrey Costa, Tara L. Imlay, Scott Bossuyt, Chloe K. Boynton, Gary Burness, Dean R. Evans, Keith A. Hobson, Jackson W. Kusack, Olga Lansdorp, Ariel K. Lenske, Beverly McClenaghan, Erica Nol, Antonio Salvadori, Adam C. Smith, Tony D. Williams, Rebecca Whittam, Michael D. Cadman
Summary: The study found that long-term population trends in Barn Swallows in Canada were generally stronger in the east and west, and weaker in central Canada. Short-term population trends were usually weakly negative or neutral. Average breeding performance and colony size were poor predictors of regional growth rates in the subsequent year. The results suggest that local breeding success is positively correlated to changes in local colony size in the following year, but there is little support for density dependence affecting local breeding performance.
AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ornithology
Ake Lindstrom, Thomas Alerstam, Peter Bahlenberg, Robert Ekblom, James W. Fox, Johan Raghall, Raymond H. G. Klaassen
JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Ornithology
Nina Seifert, Martin Haase, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Christian C. Voigt, Angela Schmitz Ornes
JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Elizabeth M. Beck, Brennan Obermayer, Timothy Joyce, Brett Weddle
AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY
(2015)
Article
Ornithology
Juan Arizaga, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Daniel Alonso, Jose A. Cortes, Michel Leconte, Hamid Rguibi, Thijs Valkenburg, Pablo Vera, Keith A. Hobson
Article
Ornithology
Erin Bayne, Lionel Leston, C. Lisa Mahon, Peter Solymos, Craig Machtans, Hedwig Lankau, Jeffrey R. Ball, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Steve G. Cumming, Trish Fontaine, Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow, Samantha J. Song
Article
Ecology
Alain Caizergues, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Keith A. Hobson
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH
(2016)
Article
Ornithology
Brian D. Linkhart, James W. Fox, Scott W. Yanco
JOURNAL OF FIELD ORNITHOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Scott J. Werner, Keith A. Hobson, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Justin W. Fischer
Article
Ornithology
Goetz Eichhorn, Willem Bil, James W. Fox
JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY
(2017)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Peter Solymos, Kevin J. Kardynal, Matthew D. Frey
AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY
(2017)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Patrick J. Turgeon, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Kiel L. Drake
AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY
(2017)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Keith A. Hobson, Kevin J. Kardynal, Elizabeth M. Beck
AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY
(2018)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Benjamin Merkel, Jon Aars, Kristin L. Laidre, James W. Fox
Summary: This study assesses the potential of using light-level geolocation (GLS) tags, developed for birds and fish, to estimate life history metrics for polar bears. The results show that GLS is a powerful, low-cost method for polar bear population monitoring that can provide data on reproductive history, including age at first reproduction, and maternity denning location and phenology.
ANIMAL BIOTELEMETRY
(2023)
Article
Ornithology
Christian K. Asante, Timothy D. Jardine, Steven L. Van Wilgenburg, Keith A. Hobson
Article
Ornithology
Diana Solovyeva, Keith A. Hobson, Natalia Kharitonova, Jason Newton, James W. Fox, Vsevolod Afansyev, Anthony D. Fox
JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY
(2016)