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The Chestnut‐banded Plover Charadrius pallidus is a Near‐Threatened shorebird species endemic to mainland Africa. We examined levels of genetic differentiation between its two morphologically and geographically distinct subspecies, C. p. pallidus in southern Africa (population size 11 000–16 000) and C. p. venustus in eastern Africa (population size 6500). In contrast to other plover species that...
Biological communities are shaped by competition between and within species. Competition is often reduced by inter‐ and intraspecific specialization on resources, such as differencet foraging areas or time, allowing similar species to coexist and potentially contributing to reproductive isolation. Here, we examine the simultaneous role of temporal and spatial foraging segregation within and between...
Colonization of islands by long‐distance dispersers has great impact on genetic diversification among populations and may spearhead speciation events. We investigated intra‐ and interspecific divergence in Charadrius plovers with populations on mainland Africa, Madagascar and St Helena. We analysed microsatellite loci and sequence data from four nuclear and two mitochondrial gene regions. Charadrius...
We analysed breeding sounds of the two subspecies of South American Snipe Gallinago paraguaiae paraguaiae and Gallinago paraguaiae magellanica to determine whether they might be different species: loud vocalizations given on the ground, and the tail‐generated Winnow given in aerial display. Sounds of the two taxa differ qualitatively and quantitatively. Both taxa utter two types of ground call. In...
Natural and social selection are among the main shapers of biological diversity but their relative importance in divergence remains understudied. Additionally, although neutral evolutionary processes may promote phenotypic divergence, their potential contribution in speciation is often overlooked in studies of comparative morphology. In this study, we investigated phenotypic differentiation in two...
Neotropical grassland birds are intimately tied to their habitat and form a phylogenetically diverse group that has been poorly studied from an evolutionary point of view. Here we present a brief review of the biogeographical history of Neotropical grasslands of relevance to grassland birds. Based on this review, we have formulated the most relevant hypotheses related to the diversification and evolution...
Western New Guinea remains one of the last biologically underexplored regions of the world, and much remains to be learned regarding the diversity and evolutionary history of its fauna and flora. During a recent ornithological expedition to the Kumawa Mountains in West Papua, we encountered an undescribed species of Melanocharis berrypecker (Melanocharitidae) in cloud forest at an elevation of 1200 m...
White‐eyes are an iconic avian radiation of small passerines that are mainly distributed across the eastern hemisphere tropics and subtropics. Species diversity of white‐eyes is particularly high on oceanic islands, and many species are restricted to single islands or island groups. The high rate of species diversification of white‐eyes ranks them among the fastest radiations known in birds, but whether...
The Amaurospiza ‘seedeaters’ are bamboo‐specialized mixed strategists, most often found in bamboos in vegetative state, feeding on buds, shoots, petioles and insects. As bamboos die after flowering, birds may wander in search of live vegetative bamboo. The three currently recognized species of Amaurospiza are allopatrically distributed: the Blackish‐blue Seedeater Amaurospiza moesta in the Atlantic...
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