Small Eggs, Big Trade-offs: How Shorebirds Balance Clutch Size and Climate Risk
A Little Ringed Plover nest with two eggs, highlighting how some shorebirds may reduce clutch size in response to environmental stress or resource limitations. © Gyorgy Szimuly
Breeding and Life-cycles

Small Eggs, Big Trade-offs: How Shorebirds Balance Clutch Size and Climate Risk

Why do some birds lay fewer, larger eggs? Shorebirds breeding in extreme environments have evolved surprising strategies to balance energy, risk, and reproductive success.

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Why Wait to Grow Up? Shorebirds' Delayed Maturity Tied to Coastal Living
Often seen roosting or foraging near coastlines, Oriental Pratincoles (Glareola maldivarum) are among the species analysed in the study. Their life-history strategies reflect the behavioural demands of complex habitats — an important factor in the timing of maturity. © Arkajit Chakraborty

Why Wait to Grow Up? Shorebirds' Delayed Maturity Tied to Coastal Living

Shorebirds that winter along dynamic coastlines delay their first return to breed, a strategy linked not to body size, but to the behavioural demands of tidal habitats — revealing new insights into how environment shapes avian life-history timing.
Breeding and Life-cycles
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Same Species, Different Clocks: Migration That Shapes Reproductive Timing in Birds
A Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis oreganus) in the fresh light of spring. While this species isn’t featured in the study, it serves as a reminder of how migration and seasonal timing weave together in the lives of birds across latitudes. © Ilya Povalyaev

Same Species, Different Clocks: Migration That Shapes Reproductive Timing in Birds

Why do some birds get ready to breed while others are still preparing to migrate—despite living in the same place? The answer lies in how they sense time.
Breeding and Life-cycles
The Ornithologist

The Ornithologist
North America’s Bird Declines Reveal a Global Conservation Blind Spot
Eastern Meadowlark — a defining voice of North American grasslands, now in steep decline. Its disappearance reflects the wider crisis of common birds. © Shelley Rutkin

North America’s Bird Declines Reveal a Global Conservation Blind Spot

Common species are the backbone of ecosystems, yet new research shows they are declining at a scale that reshapes the conservation challenge. If familiar birds disappear, the loss will be both ecological and cultural — and it may already be happening faster than we think.
Conservation
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly