birds

The journal 'Nature Genetics' publishes this week the genome sequencing of a female duck. The work, led by the University of Pekin (China), identifies the genetic factors that influence the response of waterfowl to infection with avian influenza subtype H5N1, which has contributed to creating widespread outbreaks in poultry. The duck's immune system allows it to be infected with bird flu and to remain in many cases asymptomatic.

The complete and well-preserved skeleton of a new feathered dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic changes some previous ideas about the origin and evolution of birds. 'Aurornis xui' –from Latin 'Aurora' and the term 'Ornis', which means bird of dawn - is the name with which they have baptized the oldest avialan dinosaur found to date.

It always happens. When a person walks down the street and approaches the place where a bird perches, it ends up taking flight and fleeing. However, in some places the birds are more confident and take longer to escape than in others. A study led by CSIC researchers has analyzed the distances at which animals take flight, and concludes that in cities and in the northernmost regions of Europe, birds are more trusting.

Swim or fly, that is the question. Penguins are clumsy in the air, however in the water they develop perfectly, and this could be one of the reasons why these birds lost the ability to fly that their ancestors had, according to a study published in the magazine PNAS.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Granada, have concluded that female house sparrows (Passer domesticus) invest energy in laying eggs according to the ability of the male to fill the nest with feathers, which serve to insulate chickens from the cold and keep them alive.

The Spanish biodiversity has 56 new additions of bird species, which have just been added to the new List of birds in Spain prepared by SEO / BirdLife. This catalog, which updates the previous one from 2005, confirms the growth of the Spanish avifauna, mainly due to modern genetic studies, the increase in wandering or "rare" birds, the greater number of observers in the field and the acclimatization of foreign species.

Research from 17 South African fossil fragments by scientists from the UK's National Museum of Natural History has shown that approximately 12 million years ago four different species of penguins lived off the coast of Africa.

According to research by scientists at Oxford and Lund Universities, the fact that many males provide paternal care to their offspring even when they are not of the same blood could have an evolutionary explanation. The work indicates that instead of doing it out of "confusion", the males are much more tolerant and cunning than was supposed and they decide their care based on how likely it is that a female will put the horns on them.