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
Three Wheatears, Three Routes into Africa
Pied Wheatears breeding at the western edge of their vast Eurasian range take a surprisingly direct migration route through Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula to non-breeding grounds in Somalia. / Las collalbas pías que se reproducen en el extremo occidental de su extensa área de distribución euroasiática siguen una ruta migratoria sorprendentemente directa a través de Anatolia y la península arábiga hasta sus zonas no reproductoras en Somalia. © Ohad Sherer

Three Wheatears, Three Routes into Africa

Three closely related wheatears leave southern Europe for different parts of Africa. Tracking birds from Spain, Greece and Romania reveals contrasting migration routes and places Eastern Black-eared Wheatears more than 1,000 kilometres beyond their previously described non-breeding range.
Movement and Distribution
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Six Years After First Breeding, Alpine Swifts Are Colonising Hungary
The Alpine Swift was considered a rare visitor to Hungary until breeding was first confirmed in 2020. Six years later, it is breeding in several Hungarian cities, and its numbers continue to grow. / El vencejo real se consideraba un visitante raro en Hungría hasta que se confirmó por primera vez su reproducción en 2020. Seis años después, se reproduce en varias ciudades húngaras y su población sigue creciendo. © James Hoagland

Six Years After First Breeding, Alpine Swifts Are Colonising Hungary

Six years after Alpine Swifts first bred in Hungary, their numbers are increasing and new breeding sites are appearing. What began as an exceptional event is starting to look like an established population.
News
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
When Can a Bird Afford to Moult?
Common Bulbuls can breed year-round, yet their moult remains strongly seasonal and responsive to body condition and diet. / Los bulbules naranjeros pueden reproducirse durante todo el año, pero su muda sigue siendo marcadamente estacional y responde a la condición corporal y a la dieta. © Jeff Maw

When Can a Bird Afford to Moult?

In Common Bulbuls, the conditions associated with starting moult differ from those associated with completing it quickly. An experiment in Nigeria shows how body condition and diet shape different stages of feather replacement.
Conceptual Notes Avian Diet
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Do GPS Tags Affect Small Shorebirds?
Advances in lightweight GPS technology are allowing researchers to study the movements of even small shorebirds like the Kentish Plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) while carefully assessing the welfare implications of tagging. © Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok

Do GPS Tags Affect Small Shorebirds?

Solar-powered GPS tags are opening new possibilities in shorebird research — but how close are we to the limits of what small birds can carry without consequence?
Fieldwork and Technology
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly