Egg recognition abilities of tit species in the Paridae family: do Indomalayan tits exhibit higher recognition than Palearctic tits?

Recent studies have shown that the closely related cinereous tit ( Parus cinereus) and green-backed tit ( P. monticolus) in China display strong egg recognition ability in contrast to tit species in Europe, which lack such ability. However, egg recognition in other populations of cinereous and green-backed tits and additional Paridae species still requires further research. Here, we compared the egg recognition abilities of cinereous tits across China, green-backed tits ( P. m. insperatus) in Taiwan, China, and five other species from the Paridae family, including the marsh tit ( Poecile palustris), varied tit ( Sittiparus varius), willow tit ( Poecile montanus), coal tit ( Periparus ater), and ground tit ( Pseudopodoces humilis). Results showed that the Hebei (58.8% egg rejection, n=17) and Liaoning populations (53.3%, n=15) of cinereous tits, and the Guizhou (100%, n=12) and Taiwan populations (75%, n=12) of green-backed tits all exhibited high egg recognition ability. The egg recognition ability of these tits was significantly greater than that of the other five species in the Paridae family. The varied tit (5.4%, n=37), marsh tit (8.3%, n=12), willow tit (Hebei: 25%, n=20; Beijing: 9.5%, n=21), coal tit (16.7%, n=18), and ground tit (0, n=5) species all showed low egg recognition abilities, with no significant differences found among them. Egg recognition was not associated with a single phylogenetic group but occurred in several groups of tits. In particular, those species widely distributed in the Indomalayan realm, thus overlapping with small cuckoo species, displayed strong egg recognition ability, whereas tit species in the Palearctic realm exhibited low or no egg recognition ability.

[Patterns of bird nocturnal migration at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport, Northeast China]. / æ²ˆé˜³æ¡ƒä»™å›½é™ æœºåœºé¸Ÿç±»å¤œé—´è¿å¾™è§„å¾‹.

The high frequency of bird strikes at night during the migration season is a remarkable characteristic of bird strikes at airports. Understanding the nocturnal migration patterns of birds is important for improving the methods to prevent bird strikes at night. In this study, we combined the methods of mist-net capture and sound recording to examine the composition of bird species and the patterns of nocturnal migration at Taoxian Airport. We found that 56 species of birds (88.9% of the total) migrated at night and mainly migrated after midnight. There were obvious temporal dynamics and sequence in migration. The time of spring migration was more concentrated and the migration peaked in mid-May, with Coturnix japonica, Lanius cristatus, Emberiza fucata, Saxicola torquatus, Caprimulgus indicus and Phylloscopus inornatus as the dominant species. The migration pattern was more dispersed in autumn and the peak of migration was in late September to early October, and the main species were C. japonica, Turdus hortulorum, Anthus cervinus, Scolopax rusticola, Locustella lanceolata and Emberiza spodocephala. Based on the Bird Hazard Risk Assessment, there were mainly two species with high risk (C. japonica and L. cristatus) in spring migration and four species with high risk (C. japonica, Athene noctua, T. hortulorum and S. rusticola) in autumn migration. We proposed several strategies for the prevention of bird strike based on the composition of migratory birds, migration dynamics, migration rhythm and species risk level, which could serve as references for bird strike prevention at Taoxian Airport.

[Extrapair paternity in Parus major].

Mating systems, as an evolutionary stable strategy, play an important role in animal reproductive process and result from an animal's adaption to their environment, including their inter-specific environment. In the 1980s, extrapair paternity (EPP) was first noted in the eurychoric species, the Great Tit, Parus major. As earlier studies indicated, morphology, physiology, behavior, ecological characteristics and mating systems of eurychoric species differ greatly between areas or populations. Accordingly, we analyzed the mating system of the Great Tit (P.m.minor) in Fairy Cave National Nature Reserve, Liaoning, China. We collected total parent-offspring blood samples from 22 broods. We used 8 hypervariable loci, which were selected from 11 reported microsatellite loci for paternity test. In conjunction with the known genetic pattern of the female parent, the accuracy of the paternity testing reached 99.98% with this genetic data. Results of paternity testing showed that 7 of 22 broods (31.8%) had extra-pair nestling, with 16 of 197 nestlings (8.12%) a result of extra-pair fertilizations. The EPP rate of the Great Tit we noted in Liaoning is obviously lower than those in other passerine forest birds (less than 10%). Though between 55.6% and 9.1% extrapair offspring were found among the different nests, we were, however, unable to find any explanatory rule.

Decomposition dynamic of higher plant pigments by HPLC analysis.

The fate of the litter of dominant vegetation(willows and reeds) is one of the aspects studied in the frame of the project "Onderzoek Milieu Effecten Sigmaplan". One of the questions to be considered is how long the litter stays within the estuary. In this paper, the time the leaf litter (Salix triandra and Phragmites australis) stayed in the Schelde estuary was studied by using plant pigment as biomarkers with HPLC application. After analyzing the original data from the incubation experiment described by Dubuison and Geers (1999), the decomposition dynamics patterns of pigments were analyzed and described, and these decomposition dynamics patterns were used as calibration patterns. By using Spearman Rank Order Correlation, the calibration patterns of the pigments which were significant (p < 0.05) were grouped. In this way, several groups of the calibration patterns of pigment decomposition were achieved. The presence or absence of these groups of pigments (whether they can be detected or not from HPLC) was shown to be useful in determining the time the litter has stayed in the water. Combining data of DW and POC, more precise timing can be obtained.