Focus: Using molecular data to understand a large radiation of passerine birds Funding: Marie Curie Fellowship We are using molecular data to understand a large radiation of passerine birds, the core ...

Passerine (perching) birds make up 60% of all bird species, including some familiar Australian favorites, like the superb fairy-wren and willie wagtail. Until now, they were believed to only be ...

Island systems have played a disproportionally large role in the study of the evolution, redistribution and maintenance of biological diversity. Contributions by Darwin 1 and Wallace 2,3 formed the ...

Daurian redstarts move their nesting sites closer to or even inside human settlements when cuckoos are around. In doing so, they actively protect their nest against brood parasitism, as cuckoos avoid ...

A study reconstructs the history of passerine bird diversification. Passerines, or perching birds, comprise more than 6,000 extant species and represent 60% of bird diversity. How Earth's history ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Passerines – the perching birds – are by far ...

The environmental template undoubtedly is clade-specific and difficult to evaluate. Although large and small clades coexist regionally, whether the availability of ecological space limits ...