Nesting colonial seabirds are prime examples of central-place foragers, animals that must return to a central location (e.g., a breeding colony) after each bout of foraging. They must balance the costs and benefits of foraging with the need to return to their colonies frequently to form pair bonds during courtship, incubate, provision mates and offspring, and protect and rear young. For some populations, the loss and degradation of suitable breeding habitat due to human activities have necessitated the construction of new breeding sites and/or the restoration of previously occupied sites. South Island, which is part of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) complex in the Commonwealth of Virginia, U.S.A., is a human-created island that supported Virginia\'s largest mixed species seabird colony until 2020, when the expansion of the HRBT began and when all nesting seabirds were permanently excluded from the site. We studied the movement patterns of foraging common terns (Sterna hirundo) to determine how travel to and around foraging sites related to their colony location and to inform the siting and construction of a new breeding island. We tracked 18 individual common terns from 07 June to 29 June 2018, and we used a hidden Markov model to assign behavioral states and investigate common tern movements around the HRBT. Common terns spent more than half their time in the colony (58%), followed by time devoted to foraging (22%), and the remainder of their time was spent on outbound (15%) and inbound (5%) transit. Terns traveled as far as 98km from the colony, but on average foraged relatively close to South Island (13.6 ± 0.3km, mean ± 1 SD). Individuals tended to forage in the same locations, but there was variation among individuals. Flying to foraging sites uses energy during the already energetically costly breeding season, thus managers should prioritize placing a new colony site in a location that minimizes the distance traveled to the foraging locations frequented by the South Island birds while accounting for other life-history characteristics. These findings could help in the design and construction of new breeding sites or the restoration of current sites for other, related species, particularly for which these data do not exist.

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In the southeastern United States, wood ducks (Aix sponsa) have historically experienced interspecific brood parasitism (IBP) primarily from hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus), but the recent northward expansion of black-bellied whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) has added a new complexity to these interactions. We monitored nest boxes in Louisiana to evaluate the influence IBP had on wood duck daily nest survival rate (after, DSR) and duckling recruitment. We monitored 1,295 wood duck nests from 2020-2023 and found 112 (8.7%) were parasitized by hooded mergansers and 148 (11.5%) by whistling-ducks. Parasitic egg-laying by hooded mergansers lowered wood duck DSR, while DSR for nests parasitized by whistling-ducks was comparable to clutches containing only wood duck eggs. We considered the wood duck capture histories of 2,465 marked female ducklings and 540 banded adult females to estimate a duckling recruitment probability for the entire study period. We recaptured 50 ducklings as adults; 6 (12.0%) hatched from clutches parasitized by hooded mergansers, 1 (2.0%) from a clutch parasitized by a whistling-duck, and 43 (86.0%) from clutches containing only wood duck eggs. The duckling recruitment probability was 0.039 (95% credible interval = 0.028, 0.051). Nest initiation date had a negative effect on recruitment, wherein most recruits hatched from nests initiated earlier in the season. Given only ~9% of wood duck nests contained hooded merganser eggs, we conclude IBP writ large had no detrimental effect on DSR at a population level. The lower DSR of clutches parasitized by hooded mergansers is potentially linked to a high abundance of early-season parasites that produce \"dump nests\" and these clutches are often abandoned without being incubated. Despite ongoing parasitism by hooded mergansers and the range expansion of whistling-ducks, wood duck productivity in Louisiana appears to be minimally affected by interspecific brood parasitism.

Invasive alien species control is recognized worldwide as a priority action to preserve global biodiversity. However, a lack of general life history knowledge for threatened species can impede the effectiveness of conservation actions. Galápagos pink land iguanas (Conolophus marthae) are endemic to Wolf Volcano, Galápagos, Ecuador. These iguanas are threatened by invasive alien species, particularly feral cats, that may affect their small population size. To guarantee the long-term survival of C. marthae, the Galápagos National Park Directorate is considering, along with an ongoing campaign of feral cat control, the implementation of a head-start program. However, the success of this management strategy necessarily relies on the identification of pink iguana nesting grounds, which were still unknown at the onset of this study. We modeled the movement patterns of male and female iguanas during the reproductive season, using location data collected from custom-made remote tracking devices installed on adult pink iguanas in April 2021. We first calculated for each individual the vector of distances from its starting location, which was defined as net displacement. We then used net displacement as the response variable in a generalized additive mixed model with day of the year as the predictor. Based on the hypothesis that males and females may behaviorally differ after mating, we looked for female-specific migratory behavior suggesting females were moving toward nesting areas. The results obtained confirmed our hypothesis, as females exhibited a distinct migratory behavior, reaching a small plateau area inside of Wolf Volcano\'s caldera and ca. 400 m below the volcano\'s northern rim. Moreover, once inside the caldera, females displayed a more aggregated distribution pattern. The movement data obtained allowed Galápagos National Park rangers to locate individual pink iguana nests and subsequently to sight and collect the first observed hatchlings of the species. This work constitutes a necessary baseline to perform dedicated studies of pink iguana nests and emerging hatchling iguanas, which is an essential step toward the development of an effective head-start program.

Many anuran amphibians deposit their eggs in foam nests, biostructures that help protect the eggs and tadpoles from predators. Currently, there are no other identification and description studies of the cultivable microbiota role in the nests of the Leptodactylid frogs such as Physalaemus cuvieri, Leptodactylus vastus and Adenomera hylaedactyla. This study aimed to isolate and identify the culturable bacteria from these three anuran species\' nests, as well as to prospect enzymes produced by this microbiota. Foam nests samples and environmental samples were diluted and viable cell count was determined. Bacterial morphotypes from foam nest samples were isolated through spread plate technique. Isolates\' DNAs were extracted followed by rRNA 16S gene amplification and Sanger sequencing. To evaluate their enzymatic potential, the isolates were cultured in ATGE medium supplemented with starch (0.1% w/v), gelatin (3% w/v) and skimmed milk (1% w/v), to verify amylase and protease activity. A total of 183 bacterial morphotypes were isolated, comprising 33 bacterial genera. Proteobacteria phylum was the most abundant in all the three nests (79%). The genera Pseudomonas and Aeromonas were the most abundant taxon in P. cuvieri and L. vastus. In A. Hylaedactyla, were Enterobacter and Bacillus. Regarding enzymatic activities, 130 isolates displayed protease activity and 45 isolates were positive for amylase activity. Our results provide unprecedented information concerning culturable bacterial microbiota of the foam nests of the Leptodactylid frogs, as well as their potential for biomolecules of biotechnological interest.

Nest building is a vital behavior exhibited during breeding in birds, and is possibly induced by environmental and social cues. Although such behavioral plasticity has been hypothesized to be controlled by adult neuronal plasticity, empirical evidence, especially at the neurogenomic level, remains limited. Here, we aim to uncover the gene regulatory networks that govern avian nest construction and examine whether they are associated with circuit rewiring. We designed an experiment to dissect this complex behavior into components in response to pair bonding and nest material acquisition by manipulating the presence of mates and nest materials in 30 pairs of zebra finches. Whole-transcriptome analysis of 300 samples from five brain regions linked to avian nesting behaviors revealed nesting-associated gene expression enriched with neural rewiring functions, including neurogenesis and neuron projection. The enriched expression was observed in the motor/sensorimotor and social behavior networks of female finches, and in the dopaminergic reward system of males. Female birds exhibited predominant neurotranscriptomic changes to initiate the nesting stage, while males showed major changes after entering this stage, underscoring sex-specific roles in nesting behavior. Notably, major neurotranscriptomic changes occurred during pair bonding, with minor changes during nest material acquisition, emphasizing social interactions in nest construction. We also revealed gene expression associated with reproductive behaviors and tactile sensing for nesting behavior. This study presents novel neurogenomic evidence supporting the hypothesis of adult neural plasticity underlying avian nest-construction behavior. By uncovering the genetic toolkits involved, we offer novel insights into the evolution of animals\' innate ability to construct nests.

The reaction of birds to the nest parasite, the European cuckoo Cuculus canorus, has been the subject of extensive testing in various aspects. However, while the cuckoo is a long-distance migrant, some of its hosts are sedentary species. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether species, primarily hosts, react to the presence of the cuckoo also in the winter season. This behaviour may involve an attempt to drive the parasite away from locations that will subsequently become their breeding sites. During playback experiments conducted in the winter of 2021/2022 in Poland, we demonstrated that numerous bird species react to the male cuckoo calls in winter. These calls may be perceived as a source of danger, particularly by cuckoo hosts, who responded to this call more frequently than non-hosts and the control species (pigeon). Nonetheless, the birds\' reactions were not strong, as they did not approach the source of the call. However, our results are constrained by the limited number of cuckoo host species wintering in Poland. To better evaluate the intensity of bird responses to the male cuckoo\'s call during the non-breeding season, further studies should be conducted in regions where a greater variety of species, especially those most susceptible to parasitism, overwinter.

The loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta is a large marine turtle with a cosmopolitan repartition in warm and temperate waters of the planet. The South Pacific subpopulation is classified as \'Critically Endangered\' on the IUCN Red List, based on the estimated demographic decline. This precarious situation engages an urgent need to monitor nesting populations in order to highlight conservation priorities and to ensure their efficiency over time. New Caledonia encompasses a large number of micro and distant nesting sites, localized on coral islets widely distributed across its large lagoon. Adequately surveying nesting activities on those hard-to-reach beaches can prove to be challenging. As a result, important knowledge gaps prevail in those high-potential nesting habitats. For the first time, an innovative monitoring scheme was conducted to assess the intensity of nesting activities, considered as a proxy of the population size, on an exhaustive set of islets located in the \'Grand Lagon Sud\' area. These data were analyzed using a set of statistical methods specially designed to produce phenology and nesting activity estimates using Bayesian methods. This analysis revealed that this rookery hosts a large nesting colony, with a mean annual estimate of 437 nests (95% Credible Interval = 328-582). These numbers exceed that of the previous estimated annual number of loggerhead turtle nests in New Caledonia, highlighting the exceptional nature of this area. Considering the fact that similar high-potential aggregations have been identified in other parts of New Caledonia, but failed to be comprehensively assessed to this day, we recommend carrying out this replicable monitoring scheme to other locations. It could allow a significant re-evaluation of the New Caledonian nesting population importance and, ultimately, of its prevailing responsibility for the protection of this patrimonial yet endangered species.

Bory Tucholskie National Park, founded in 1996, is one of the most recently established national parks in Poland, and therefore, has not been thoroughly examined yet. The authors of the current study present results of their research concerning communities of mites from the suborder Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata), inhabiting bird nesting boxes within the area of Bory Tucholskie National Park. The mite community comprises two nidicolous species, i.e. Leiodinychus orbicularis (C.L. Koch, 1839) and Chiropturopoda nidiphila (Wiśniewski and Hirschmann 1993). The former is a species characteristic of various types of nests, as well as nesting boxes, where it is usually the eudominant species. The latter is an extremely rare and scarce species of Uropodina, known thus far from woodpeckers\' hollows. The population of L. orbicularis in the analysed communities in the realm of Bory Tucholskie National Park has been estimated to be over 6,000 specimens, and in the case of Ch. nidiphila - over 400 specimens.