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Rapid microevolution of migratory behaviour in a wild bird species

Nature, ISSN: 0028-0836, Vol: 360, Issue: 6405, Page: 668-670
1992
  • 388
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 418
    Captures
  • 5
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    388
    • Citation Indexes
      386
    • Policy Citations
      2
      • Policy Citation
        2
  • Captures
    418
  • Mentions
    5
    • References
      3
      • Wikipedia
        3
    • Blog Mentions
      1
      • Blog
        1
    • News Mentions
      1
      • News
        1

Most Recent Blog

Nesting Instinct: When Birds Change (Genetically-Coded) Flight Plans

From northern Illinois to southern Europe, birds are feeling the effects of climate change. People are seeing new guests at backyard bird feeders, or their absence as insect pests hit crops. Chris Whelan, an ecologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-editor of Why Birds Matter, has tracked these changes closely. Below, Whelan shares his insights on how birds are adapting — and not —

Most Recent News

Nesting Instinct: When Birds Change (Genetically-Coded) Flight Plans

From northern Illinois to southern Europe, birds are feeling the effects of climate change. People are seeing new guests at backyard bird feeders, or their absence as insect pests hit crops. Chris Whelan, an ecologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-editor of Why Birds Matter, has tracked these changes closely. Below, Whelan shares his insights on how birds are adapting — and not —

Article Description

THE Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, a widespread Palearctic migratory bird, rarely wintered in Britain until the 1950s. The winter population has since increased to several thousand birds. Ringing indicates that these are not British Blackcaps forestalling migration, but birds breeding in Continental Europe reaching Britain on a novel westerly migration route . The proportion of north-western migrants among Blackcaps ringed in parts of Germany and Austria has increased from 0% before 1960 to currently 7-10%. We bred British wintering Blackcaps in captivity and determined the migratory direction of their offspring. Here we report that these birds migrate west-northwest in autumn, a direction genetically distinct from the British breeding population and the predominantly southwestern migratory population of west-central Europe. The novel route must have evolved within the past 30 years with selection favouring birds wintering some 1,500 km further north than most of their conspecifics. To our knowledge, this is the first case in any vertebrate in which a drastic and recent evolutionary change of behaviour has been documented and its genetic basis established. © 1992 Nature Publishing Group.

Bibliographic Details

Berthold, P.; Helbig, A. J.; Mohr, G.; Querner, U.

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Multidisciplinary

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