Nest ornaments and feather composition form an extended phenotype syndrome in a wild bird

Abstract Many species throughout the animal kingdom construct nests for reproduction. A nest is an extended phenotype—a non-bodily attribute—of the individual building it. In some bird species, including our study population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), conspicuous feathers or other material are placed on top of the nest. These so-called nest ornaments do not contribute to nest insulation, but are hypothesised to have a signalling function. Here, we apply the concept of behavioural syndromes, with focus on between-individual variation (repeatability) and between-individual correlations, to the study of avian nest construction. We find that nest ornamentation is a moderately repeatable trait in female blue tits, which suggests it is an extended phenotype of the female. Furthermore, the tendency to ornament the nest covaries across females with another aspect of her extended phenotype, the composition of the nest lining material, and these two traits thus form an extended phenotype syndrome. Assuming the correlation is reflected on a genetic level, it implies that nest ornamentation and composition of the nest lining do not evolve in isolation; one aspect may be an evolutionary by-product of selection on the other aspect and their overall flexibility to respond to change is reduced. Significance statement The avian nest is an extended phenotype (a non-bodily attribute) of its builder with potentially multiple functions in terms of insulation and signalling. In particular, many bird species’ nests contain nest ornaments, feathers or other materials that are placed on top of the nest and that stand out from the nest material due to their colour and/or size. We quantified between-individual variation (repeatability) of nest ornamentation behaviour in a wild population of blue tits and between-individual covariation (syndrome) of nest ornamentation to other features of nest construction. We find that nest ornamentation is a repeatable trait limited to females in our study population. The tendency to ornament the nest covaries across females with another aspect of her extended nest phenotype, the composition of the nest lining material. These correlated traits thus form an extended phenotype syndrome. It hence becomes crucial to recognise that a study of a single aspect of nest construction in isolation captures only a part of the complexity, as one aspect may have evolved as a correlated response of selection on the other aspect. Moreover, such a syndrome implies limited flexibility in the range of adaptive response.

Download Full-text

Intra-individual variation in adults and children: measuring and conceptualizing individual dialect–standard repertoires

Linguistics Vanguard ◽

10.1515/lingvan-2020-0032 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (s2) ◽

Author(s):

Irmtraud Kaiser ◽

Andrea Ender

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Individual Variation ◽

The Other ◽

Standard Language ◽

Methodological Choices ◽

Standard Spectrum ◽

Speech Data ◽

Adults And Children ◽

The One ◽

The Individual

Abstract This paper explores intra-individual variation as a manifestation of language-internal multilingualism in the Central-Bavarian Austrian context. Based on speech data from children and adults in different contexts, we discuss different methods of measuring and analyzing inter-situational variation along the dialect and standard language spectrum. By contrasting measures of dialectality, on the one hand, and proportions of turns in dialect, standard language or intermediate/mixed forms on the other, we gain complementary insights not only into the individual dialect-standard repertoires but also into the consequences of different methodological choices. The results indicate that intra-individual variation is ubiquitous in adults and children and that individual repertoires need to be taken into account from the beginning of the language acquisition process. We suggest that while intra-individual variation can be attested through the use of various methods, the revealed level of granularity and the conclusions that can be drawn as to the individual repertoires on the dialect-standard spectrum largely depend on the measures used and their inherent assumptions and intrinsically necessary categorizations.

Download Full-text

Women in Violent Extremism in Sweden

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2021077015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 77 (1) ◽

pp. 15

Author(s):

Hernan Mondani ◽

Amir Rostami ◽

Tina Askanius ◽

Jerzy Sarnecki ◽

Christofer Edling

Keyword(s):

Mental Disorders ◽

The Other ◽

Average Score ◽

Far Right ◽

Employment Share ◽

Study Population ◽

Role Of Women ◽

Islamic Extremism ◽

Better Than

This presentation summarizes a register-based study on women who have been identified as belonging to three violent extremist milieus in Sweden: violent Islamic, violent far-right, and violent far-left extremism. We studied the women in these milieus along a number of analytical dimensions, ranging from demographic and educational to criminal background and network relationships, and compared them to three reference groups: (i) non-extremist biological sisters to female extremists in the study population; (ii) men in the respective extremist milieus; and (iii) female members of other antagonistic milieus such as organized crime. Our results showed that there are both similarities and differences between groups. In some cases, like age and region of birth, there are commonalities between violent far-right and violent far-left women. Regarding region of birth and migration background, women affiliated to violent far-right and violent far-left extremism are predominantly born in Sweden. Women affiliated to violent Islamic extremism tend to be born in Sweden to a greater extent than men in the same milieu, but to a much lesser degree than women in the violent far-right and violent far-left. When it comes to education, women in the violent Islamic milieu are closer to women in violent far-right extremism. Women in violent far-left extremism perform best at school, with consistently higher grades. The average score of women in violent far-left extremism is identical to that of their sisters, and women in violent far-left extremism perform on average substantially better than men in the same milieu. Women in violent Islamic extremism, in contrast, perform on average similarly to men in violent far-left extremism, and they perform better than their biological sisters. Regarding labor market attachment, violent Islamic extremists have the weakest attachment and the highest dependency upon financial assistance as well as a low employment share (36 percent in 2016), but also a relatively high share of individuals with a high number of unemployment days, suggesting that women in violent Islamic extremism experience higher social exclusion. We find the highest employment share among women in violent far-left extremism, where 89 percent are gainfully employed in 2016 (80 percent for at least three of the last five years) and about a 20 percent unemployment share. Men in violent far-left extremism have an employment share around 10 percent below that of the women in far-left extremism for 2016. The highest fractions of individuals that have not been in contact with the health system due to mental disorders are among violent Islamic extremism, with the women’s fraction at 84 percent, compared to their non-extremist sisters and men in the same milieu that are just above 79 percent. Women in violent far-left extremism have the highest share of in-patient major mental disorders among the extremist milieus (3 percent), higher than men in the same milieu (less than 1 percent) as well as than women and their sisters in the other categories. During the period 2007–2016, 68 percent of individuals in the extremist milieus are covered by the register of suspected individuals. The coverage is substantially higher for men, 72 percent than for women, 43 percent. Compared to their sisters, women in all three milieus are criminally active to a much higher extent. However, women in all three milieus are less criminally active than women in other antagonistic milieus, among whom 67 percent have been suspected at least once. In all three milieus, the share of men with a criminal record is about twice as large as that of women. As far as the gender aspect is concerned, we know that extremist milieus generally have a conservative view of the role of women in society. In our results, this is reflected in the low rates of crime in women compared to men, and relatively marginal positions in the co-offending networks. The fact that women in violent far-left extremism have stronger positions in their networks than the other women in the study population is expected, given that the ideology of this milieu allows for greater equality. This means that women in violent far-left extremism participate more often than, e.g., women in violent far-right extremism, in political actions where violence is common. This pattern of gender roles and criminal involvement also holds concerning women in violent Islamic extremism. This milieu has a more traditional view of the role of women than views among even violent far-right extremists. Women in violent Islamic extremism are less involved in crime and, in particular, violent crime.

Download Full-text

THE AGE OF ATTAINING BLADDER CONTROL

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.42.4.614 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 42 (4) ◽

pp. 614-626

Author(s):

Wallace C. Oppel ◽

Paul A. Harper ◽

Rowland V. Rider

Keyword(s):

Birth Weight ◽

Low Birth Weight ◽

Prospective Study ◽

Life Table ◽

Median Duration ◽

The Other ◽

Large Contribution ◽

Median Length ◽

Bladder Control ◽

Study Population

Data in life table form are presented from a 12-year prospective study of 859 children on the age of attaining bladder control for waking and sleeping hours by three indices: (1) age of initial dryness, (2) age of final dryness, and (3) the prevalence of dryness. By use of these indices the large contribution of relapsers to enuresis is seen. The prevalence of bedwetting in the study population was greater than that reported in other studies; the validity of this finding is defended. A larger proportion of female than male children attained both day and night dryness during the first 2 years of life. The percentage of Negro boys who first attained dryness was less than that of the other three race-sex groups after 2 years of age and was significantly less than that of Negro girls until 9 years of age. One quarter of the 817 children who attained initial nighttime dryness by age 12 relapsed; these relapsing episodes had a median duration of 2.5 years. One tenth of 855 children who attained initial daytime dryness had relapses, and the median length of these was 1.2 years. Relapsing occurred much more frequently in Negro than Caucasian children; it also was seen more often in Caucasian males than in Caucasian females. Low birth weight children had a higher percentage of children wet for both waking and sleeping hours than did full birth weight children.

Download Full-text

Bird Species Identification Using Spectrogram Based on Multi-Channel Fusion of DCNNs

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e23111507 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (11) ◽

pp. 1507

Author(s):

Feiyu Zhang ◽

Luyang Zhang ◽

Hongxiang Chen ◽

Jiangjian Xie

Keyword(s):

Species Identification ◽

Feature Fusion ◽

Bird Species ◽

The Other ◽

Identification Accuracy ◽

Mean Average Precision ◽

Training Dataset ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Average Precision ◽

Fusion Mode

Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have achieved breakthrough performance on bird species identification using a spectrogram of bird vocalization. Aiming at the imbalance of the bird vocalization dataset, a single feature identification model (SFIM) with residual blocks and modified, weighted, cross-entropy function was proposed. To further improve the identification accuracy, two multi-channel fusion methods were built with three SFIMs. One of these fused the outputs of the feature extraction parts of three SFIMs (feature fusion mode), the other fused the outputs of the classifiers of three SFIMs (result fusion mode). The SFIMs were trained with three different kinds of spectrograms, which were calculated through short-time Fourier transform, mel-frequency cepstrum transform and chirplet transform, respectively. To overcome the shortage of the huge number of trainable model parameters, transfer learning was used in the multi-channel models. Using our own vocalization dataset as a sample set, it is found that the result fusion mode model outperforms the other proposed models, the best mean average precision (MAP) reaches 0.914. Choosing three durations of spectrograms, 100 ms, 300 ms and 500 ms for comparison, the results reveal that the 300 ms duration is the best for our own dataset. The duration is suggested to be determined based on the duration distribution of bird syllables. As for the performance with the training dataset of BirdCLEF2019, the highest classification mean average precision (cmAP) reached 0.135, which means the proposed model has certain generalization ability.

Download Full-text

Electromagnetic Pollution as a Possible Explanation for the Decline of House Sparrows in Interaction with Other Factors

Birds ◽

10.3390/birds2030024 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 329-337

Author(s):

Alfonso Balmori

Keyword(s):

Electromagnetic Radiation ◽

Thermal Effects ◽

House Sparrow ◽

Bird Species ◽

Passer Domesticus ◽

The Other ◽

Rapid Decline ◽

House Sparrows ◽

Electromagnetic Pollution ◽

The Impact

In recent decades, there has been a decline of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), mainly in European cities, and several hypotheses have been proposed that attempt to determine the causes of this rapid decline. Previous studies indicated that house sparrows were significantly negatively associated with increasing electromagnetic radiation and sparrows disappeared from areas most polluted. In addition, there are many studies on the impact of radiation on other bird and non-bird species, as well as numerous laboratory studies that demonstrated detrimental effects at electric field strength levels that can be found in cities today. Electromagnetic radiation is the most plausible factor for multiple reasons, including that this is the only one that affects the other hypotheses proposed so far. It is a type of pollution that affects productivity, fertility, decreases insects (chicken feed), causes loss of habitat, decreases immunity and can promote disease. Additionally, the recent sparrow decline matches the deployment of mobile telephony networks. Further, there are known mechanisms of action for non-thermal effects of electromagnetic radiation that may affect sparrows causing their decline. Thus, electromagnetic radiation must be seriously considered as a factor for house sparrows’ decline, probably in synergy with the other factors previously proposed.

Download Full-text

Spatial and temporal patterns of bird species diversity in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil: implications for conservation

Brazilian Journal of Biology ◽

10.1590/s1519-69842006000300003 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 66 (2a) ◽

pp. 393-404 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

J. E. C. Figueira ◽

R. Cintra ◽

L. R. Viana ◽

C. Yamashita

Keyword(s):

Human Impacts ◽

Bird Species ◽

Bird Community ◽

The Other ◽

Resident Species ◽

Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽

Mato Grosso ◽

Bird Survey ◽

Bird Species Diversity ◽

Habitat Generalists

Analysis of a three-year bird survey in the pantanal of Poconé revealed that most of the resident and seasonal birds are habitat generalists, using two or more habitats. In this study, previously sampled habitats were ranked in relation to species richness and stability (as measured by the ratio of seasonal to resident species). In all, nine habitats were grouped into three categories; results are as follows: 1) forests: more species-rich and more stable; 2) cerrado: intermediate levels; and 3) aquatic: less species-rich and less stable. The number of seasonal species remained relatively constant in forests throughout the year, while increasing in the other habitats during the dry season. The abundance of resident species seems to be related to species use of multiple habitats. Although many species were found to be habitat generalists, we discuss possible consequences of habitat loss and other human impacts on efforts to conserve this important bird community.

Download Full-text

Corrigendum - Response to selection in Australian Merino sheep. I. Selection for high clean wool weight, with a ceiling on fibre diameter and degree of skin wrinkle. Response in wool and body characteristics

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research ◽

10.1071/ar9680079c ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 79

Author(s):

HN Turner ◽

CHS Dolling ◽

JF Kennedy

Keyword(s):

Fibre Diameter ◽

The Other ◽

Correlated Response ◽

Mass Selection ◽

Skin Area ◽

Response To Selection ◽

High Degree ◽

Second Period ◽

Final Selection ◽

Staple Length

Direct and correlated responses are reported for two groups of sheep selected for high clean wool weight. The work covers two periods. In the first (1950–59), both groups had selection against high average fibre diameter and high degree of skin wrinkle, but in one group (S) the performance of the ram's half-sibs was considered as well as his own, while in the other (MS) mass selection was practiced for rams. For ewes, mass selection was practiced in both groups. In the second period (1961–64), mass selection was used for both sexes in both groups, with selection against high diameter and degree of wrinkle in one group (S), and against low crimp frequency and high degree of wrinkle in the other (MS). In both periods response to selection was assessed by comparison with a random control group. In the first period, response in clean wool weight was similar in S and MS, both for rams measured at 10–11 months, when a preliminary selection on them was carried out, and for ewes measured at 15–16 months, when final selection was made for both sexes. The annual rates of increase in clean wool weight for S and MS were 2.1 and 1.8% for rams and 2.4 and 2.7% for ewes, the lower rate in rams being due to the fact that response at 10–11 months is a correlated response to the final selection at 15–16 months. As the rates of increase in the two groups are similar, it can be concluded that examination of half-sibs is not worth while; this would in fact have been predicted from the high heritability estimates for clean wool weight. There were negligible trends in fibre diameter and wrinkle score, indicating that counter-selection has been effective in preventing an increase in these characteristics. Fibre number per unit skin area made the greatest contribution to the increases in clean wool weight, the annual rates of increase for S and MS being 2.0 and 2.2% for rams and 2.0 and I .8% for ewes. Greasy wool weight, percentage clean yield, body weight, and staple length also showed increases with increasing clean wool weight in both selected groups. In spite of the fact that fibre diameter did not increase, crimp number per unit of staple length decreased in both groups. This is a further confirmation of the strong negative genetic correlation between clean wool weight and crimp number, and of the lack of a strong association between crimp number and fibre diameter. In the second period, no further response was observed. It is impossible to say at this stage whether a selection plateau has been reached or whether drought conditions interfered with response.

Download Full-text

Influence of the Noisy Miner Manorina melanocephala on avian diversity and abundance in remnant Grey Box woodland

Pacific Conservation Biology ◽

10.1071/pc980055 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 55 ◽

Cited By ~ 99

Author(s):

Merilyn J. Grey ◽

Michael F. Clarke ◽

Richard H. Loyn

Keyword(s):

Bird Species ◽

The Other ◽

Avian Diversity ◽

Short Term ◽

Experimental Removal ◽

Noisy Miner ◽

Insect Infestations ◽

Eucalypt Woodlands ◽

Manorina Melanocephala ◽

The One

The abundance of an aggressive Australian honeyeater, the Noisy Miner Manorina melanocephala, was reduced at four small (<8 ha) Grey Box Eucalyptus microcarpa woodland remnants by experimental removal. The diversity and abundance of small insectivorous and nectarivorous birds increased at three of the four sites (relative to matching control sites) over the twelve months following the removal of the Noisy Miners. The one exception occurred at a pair of sites where eucalypts began flowering at one site and finished at the other during the Noisy Miner removal period. These results, taken together with those from three earlier experiments where the abundance of Noisy Miners was reduced in Mugga Ironbark E. Sideroxylon woodland remnants, demonstrate that Noisy Miners affect avian diversity and abundance by aggressive exclusion of other species. In five out of seven experiments, Noisy Miners did not reinvade the small woodland remnants during the ensuing twelve months. When Noisy Miner abundance was reduced, increased populations of small insectivorous and nectarivorous birds used small degraded woodland remnants. Colonizing populations of small birds have the potential to reduce insect infestations and may assist in the recovery of dieback-affected woodland remnants. Research is continuing to test this hypothesis. Reducing the abundance of Noisy Miners in remnant eucalypt woodlands may also be a useful, short-term measure, which could assist in the recovery of threatened or endangered bird species.

Download Full-text