Some avian Harpirhynchidae mites live under the skin and develop cutaneous cysts. Despite the obvious lesions that these parasites can produce, little is currently known about the behavioural ...disturbances that cyst-forming mites may cause in infected wild birds. We report an infection by Harpirhynchidae mites in a hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) in southeast Spain. The bird was easily captured due to its inability to fly. During clinical examination it was found to have multiple severe traumatic injuries, possibly due to a blow or a fall, as result of which the bird was euthanized. At necropsy, the hawfinch was found to be in good body condition. Two yellowish and friable mite-filled cysts were detected in the subalar region of both wings. Mites were morphologically identified as Harpirhynchus nidulans, and histological analysis of the cystic lesions was also performed. This is the first time that the occurrence of a hawfinch infected by H. nidulans in the Iberian Peninsula has been reported.
•This is the first description of Harpirhynchus nidulans in the Iberian Peninsula.•Lesions due to this mite are described in a hawfinch with polytrauma.•Potential impairment in flight ability due to H. nidulans lesions is discussed.
Knowledge of diet and dietary selectivity is vital, especially for the conservation of declining species. Accurately obtaining this information, however, is difficult, especially if the study species ...feeds on a wide range of food items within heterogeneous and inaccessible environments, such as the tree canopy. Hawfinches (
), like many woodland birds, are declining for reasons that are unclear. We investigated the possible role that dietary selection may have in these declines in the UK. Here, we used a combination of high-throughput sequencing of 261 hawfinch faecal samples assessed against tree occurrence data from quadrats sampled in three hawfinch population strongholds in the UK to test for evidence of selective foraging. This revealed that hawfinches show selective feeding and consume certain tree genera disproportionally to availability. Positive selection was shown for beech (
), cherry (
), hornbeam (
), maples (
) and oak (
), while Hawfinch avoided ash (
), birch (
), chestnut (
), fir (
), hazel (
), rowan (
) and lime (
). This approach provided detailed information on hawfinch dietary choice and may be used to predict the effects of changing food resources on other declining passerines populations in the future.
Avian diet can be affected by site‐specific variables, such as habitat, as well as intrinsic factors such as sex. This can lead to dietary niche separation, which reduces competition between ...individuals, as well as impacting how well avian species can adapt to environmental variation. Estimating dietary niche separation is challenging, due largely to difficulties in accurately identifying food taxa consumed. Consequently, there is limited knowledge of the diets of woodland bird species, many of which are undergoing serious population declines. Here, we show the effectiveness of multi‐marker fecal metabarcoding to provide in‐depth dietary analysis of a declining passerine in the UK, the Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes). We collected fecal samples from (n = 262) UK Hawfinches prior to, and during, the breeding seasons in 2016–2019. We detected 49 and 90 plant and invertebrate taxa, respectively. We found Hawfinch diet varied spatially, as well as between sexes, indicating broad dietary plasticity and the ability of Hawfinches to utilize multiple resources within their foraging environments.
Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) have been declining in the UK since the 1970s. Using DNA metabarcoding, we wanted to increase ecological knowledge associated with Hawfinch, to aid their recovery. We found 49 and 90 prey taxa in the diet, which can improve our knowledge of why Hawfinch persist within certain areas of the UK.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- pg(s) 127–138- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal ...Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Fifty-seven hawfinches Coccothraustes coccothraustes were caught in May-June 1982-2001 on the Curonian Spit in the Baltic Sea and investigated by microscopical examination of stained blood films. ...Haemoproteus fringillae, H. tartakovskyi, Leucocytozoon dubreuili, L. fringillinarum, L. majoris, Plasmodium relictum, P. vaughani, Trypanosoma avium, T. everetti, and microfilariae were identified. The overall prevalence of infection was 100%. Prevalences of Haemoproteus spp. (89.5%), Plasmodium spp. (61.4%), Leucocytozoon spp. (78.9%), Trypanosoma spp. (26.3%), and microfilariae (29.8%) were recorded. No differences were discernible in parasite fauna, prevalence, or intensity of infection between males and females or between young and adult birds. The majority of infections (86.0% of all birds) were mixed, with parasites from two to five different genera present in each blood smear. These birds were failed breeders migrating through the Curonian Spit. It is probable that heavy haematozoan infections can influence the breeding success of birds.
The breeding performance of Hawfinches was studied during seven years (1991–98, except 1995) under conditions of an extensive close-to-pristine oak-lime-hornbeam forest in the Białowieża National ...Park, eastern Poland. Two 30–31.5 ha plots were regularly checked each year to find most nests present, usually observed since the period of their construction. Mean clutch size (5.27 ± 0.66, for best year — 5.5) finally produced small family size, owing to a partial loss, fledging and post-fledging mortality. Average breeding losses calculated traditional way were 72.8% (n = 202), mostly due to egg robbing, then predation on nestlings (three times less frequent), and, sporadically, adverse weather conditions at the moment of fledging. Nesting success (5.9–35.7%, 27.2% on average), strongly varying between years, is lower than in most Hawfinch populations from other (anthropogenic) habitats, being one of the lowest among temperate Passerines. In spite of low production of young the species remains numerous across deciduous stands of the Białowieża Forest, with its numbers even increasing since the 1980s. This large and dense population living in an apparently optimal habitat may, sporadically, be supported by influxes from other (anthropogenic?) sites.
The dorsal lingual surfaces of adult Blue-and-White Flycatcher, Hawfinch, and Japanese White-eye were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The tongue of the Blue-and-White Flycatcher shows a ...conical shape and a median groove is observed on the anterior lingual apex. The tongue of the Hawfinch shows a cuspid-like shape and a median groove and separation of the lingual apex are not observed. Many processes are observed in the tip of the tongue of the Japanese White-eye. Results of morphological studies indicate a close correlation between the shape of the tongue and the method of food intake, type of food, and bird’s habitat.
The accuracy of the territory-mapping technique for estimating the abundance of densely breeding Hawfinches was tested in an old and unfragmented lime-oak-hornbeam forest in the Białowieża National ...Park, E Poland. Hawfinch numbers estimated from counts of the whole bird community carried out with the application of the standards of the improved mapping technique were compared with seven-year data on the bird's true numbers, which are known from parallel intensive nest searches and persistent tracking of the movements of pairs. In a forest with a dense population of Hawfinches the mapping technique underestimated their numbers by 20% in years of moderate density and by 35% during high-density years. Even though the underestimation was negatively correlated with the true density of Hawfinches, the figures obtained by both methods reflected year-to-year changes in a similar way. An improvement in mapping data is achievable either by closer attention being paid to the species during standard visits (the best ones for surveying it), or post factum by the introduction of a correction factor into the mapping-technique figures.
Long-term observations (1991–2002) have shown that Hawfinches breed throughout the extensive Białowieża Forest; they are only slightly less numerous in the forest interior than at its edge. ...Population size, habitat and nest sites were studied in two plots in the species-optimal habitat (continuous oak-lime-hornbeam old-growth). The true breeding density there was 4.0–8.4, reaching as much as 15.2 p/10 ha in some years, while, according to the combined territory-mapping method for the same period, it was, on average, 5.8 pairs/10 ha in oak-lime-hornbeam, 3.3 pairs/10 ha in riparian ash-alder, but less than 0.5 pairs/10 ha in mixed coniferous-deciduous or young deciduous stands (marginal habitats for this species). Being among the most numerous species in the Białowieża Forest bird community, Hawfinches hold small nesting territories that are sometimes loosely grouped. Nests are built at an average height of 18.1 (7–34) m in the tree canopy. Hornbeams are the preferred tree species for nesting in the oak-lime-hornbeam stands (also clumps of mistletoe in the continental maple), while black alders in the riparian woodland. Originally, the Hawfinch must have been a species of old, high forests. Its recent nesting elsewhere — low in bushes or, preferably, along woodland edges — is likely to be a secondarily acquired trait; it could also be due to a bias — Hawfinch nests are more easily discovered in such localities.
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