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Identifying the environmental drivers of variation in fitness-related traits is a central objective in ecology and evolutionary biology. Temporal fluctuations of these environmental drivers are often synchronized at large spatial scales. Yet, whether synchronous environmental conditions can generate spatial synchrony in fitness-related trait values (i.e., correlated temporal trait fluctuations across populations) is poorly understood. Using data from long-term monitored populations of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus, n = 31), great tits (Parus major, n = 35), and pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca, n = 20) across Europe, we assessed the influence of two local climatic variables (mean temperature and mean precipitation in February-May) on spatial synchrony in three fitness-related traits: laying date, clutch size, and fledgling number. We found a high degree of spatial synchrony in laying date but a lower degree in clutch size and fledgling number for each species. Temperature strongly influenced spatial synchrony in laying date for resident blue tits and great tits but not for migratory pied flycatchers. This is a relevant finding in the context of environmental impacts on populations because spatial synchrony in fitness-related trait values among populations may influence fluctuations in vital rates or population abundances. If environmentally induced spatial synchrony in fitness-related traits increases the spatial synchrony in vital rates or population abundances, this will ultimately increase the risk of extinction for populations and species. Assessing how environmental conditions influence spatiotemporal variation in trait values improves our mechanistic understanding of environmental impacts on populations.

The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two co-familial European songbirds, the great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity than those in evergreen and mixed habitats. However, populations with higher sensitivity tended to have experienced less rapid change in climate over the past decades, such that populations with high phenological sensitivity will not necessarily exhibit the strongest phenological advancement. Our results show that to effectively assess the impact of climate change on phenology across a species’ range it will be necessary to account for intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity, climate change exposure, and the ecological characteristics of a population.

The costs and benefits of dispersal are often assessed by comparing fitness between dispersing and non-dispersing individuals. Importantly, individuals that disperse between their natal and first breeding site may subsequently be more likely to disperse between breeding sites compared to those that remained philopatric to their natal site. Such within-individual consistency in dispersal behaviour can bias local survival estimation, and thus the survival comparison between dispersing and non-dispersing individuals, if breeding dispersal leads to permanent emigration from the study area. We examined whether adult survival correlates with natal dispersal in a migratory shorebird, the southern dunlin Calidris alpina schinzii, in two isolated patchy populations where permanent emigration is expected to be extremely rare. To assess whether local adult survival could be biased by non-random breeding dispersal, we analysed between-patch breeding dispersal probability and quantified within-individual consistency in dispersal. Among females, natal dispersers were more likely to disperse again as adults compared to non-dispersers, while no difference was observed in males which were always highly site faithful. Yet, adult survival did not differ between natal dispersing and non-dispersing individuals in either sex. Breeding dispersal probability was higher in failed compared to successful breeders. Breeding dispersal often resulted in dispersal back to the natal patch, i.e. delayed natal philopatry. Our results suggest no survival costs of dispersal after first reproduction. Despite individual consistency, survival estimates of dispersing individuals were not biased because nearly all available breeding habitat was covered. We show that consistency in dispersal can occur even in site faithful species like the southern dunlin. Studies of the effects of dispersal on survival should therefore account for within-individual consistency in dispersal if not all available bre

1. In vertebrates, thyroid hormones (THs) play an important role in the regulation of growth, development, metabolism, photoperiodic responses and migration. Maternally transferred THs are important for normal early phase embryonic development when embryos are not able to produce endogenous THs. Previous studies have shown that variation in maternal THs within the physiological range can influence offspring phenotype. 2. Given the essential functions of maternal THs in development and metabolism, THs may be a mediator of life-history variation across species. 3. We tested the hypothesis that differences in life histories are associated with differences in maternal TH transfer across species. Using birds as a model, we specifically tested whether maternally transferred yolk THs covary with migratory status, developmental mode and traits related to pace-of-life (e.g. basal metabolic rate, maximum life span). 4. We collected un-incubated eggs (n = 1–21 eggs per species, median = 7) from 34 wild and captive bird species across 17 families and six orders to measure yolk THs [both triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4)], compiled life-history trait data from the literature and used Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to test our hypotheses. 5. Our models indicated that both concentrations and total amounts of the two main forms of THs (T3 and T4) were higher in the eggs of migratory species compared to resident species, and total amounts were higher in the eggs of precocial species, which have longer prenatal developmental periods, than in those of altricial species. However, maternal yolk THs did not show clear associations with pace-of-life-related traits, such as fecundity, basal metabolic rate or maximum life span. 6. We quantified interspecific variation in maternal yolk THs in birds, and our findings suggest higher maternal TH transfer is associated with the precocial mode of development and migratory status. Whether maternal THs represent a part of the me

The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long-term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad-scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long-term studies of birds, we have created the SPI-Birds Network and Database (www.spibirds.org)—a large-scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI-Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currently hosts data on almost 1.5 million individual birds collected in 80 populations over 2,000 cumulative years, and counting. SPI-Birds acts as a data hub and a catalogue of studied populations. It prevents data loss, secures easy data finding, use and integration and thus facilitates collaboration and synthesis. We provide community-derived data and meta-data standards and improve data integrity guided by the principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), and aligned with the existing metadata languages (e.g. ecological meta-data language). The encouraging community involvement stems from SPI-Bird's decentralized approach: research groups retain full control over data use and their way of data management, while SPI-Birds creates tailored pipelines to convert each unique data format into a standard format. We outline the lessons learned, so that other communities (e.g. those working on other taxa) can adapt our successful model. Creating community-specific hubs (such

Social information use for decision‐making is common and affects ecological and evolutionary processes, including social aggregation, species coexistence, and cultural evolution. Despite increasing ecological knowledge on social information use, very little is known about its genetic basis and therefore its evolutionary potential. Genetic variation in a trait affecting an individual’s social and nonsocial environment may have important implications for population dynamics, interspecific interactions, and, for expression of other, environmentally plastic traits. We estimated repeatability, additive genetic variance, and heritability of the use of conspecific and heterospecific social cues (abundance and breeding success) for breeding site choice in a population of wild collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis. Repeatability was found for two social cues: previous year conspecific breeding success and previous year heterospecific abundance. Yet, additive genetic variances for these two social cues, and thus heritabilities, were low. This suggests that most of the phenotypic variation in the use of social cues and resulting conspecific and heterospecific social environment experienced by individuals in this population stems from phenotypic plasticity. Given the important role of social information use on ecological and evolutionary processes, more studies on genetic versus environmental determinism of social information use are needed.

Birds are hosts for several zoonotic pathogens. Because of their high mobility, especially of longdistance migrants, birds can disperse these pathogens, affecting their distribution and phylogeography. We focused on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, which includes the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis, as an example for tick‐borne pathogens, to address the role of birds as propagation hosts of zoonotic agents at a large geographical scale. We collected ticks from passerine birds in 11 European countries. B. burgdorferi s.l. prevalence in Ixodes spp. was 37% and increased with latitude. The fieldfare Turdus pilaris and the blackbird T. merula carried ticks with the highest Borrelia prevalence (92 and 58%, respectively), whereas robin Erithacus rubecula ticks were the least infected (3.8%). Borrelia garinii was the most prevalent genospecies (61%), followed by B. valaisiana (24%), B. afzelii (9%), B. turdi (5%) and B. lusitaniae (0.5%). A novel Borrelia genospecies “Candidatus Borrelia aligera” was also detected. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of B. garinii isolates together with the global collection of B. garinii genotypes obtained from the Borrelia MLST public database revealed that: (a) there was little overlap among genotypes from different continents, (b) there was no geographical structuring within Europe, and (c) there was no evident association pattern detectable among B. garinii genotypes from ticks feeding on birds, questing ticks or human isolates. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that the population structure and evolutionary biology of tick‐borne pathogens are shaped by their host associations and the movement patterns of these hosts.

The use of social information for making decisions is common but can be constrained by behavioural traits via, for example, the ability to gather information. Such constrained information use has been described in foraging habitat selection; yet it remains unexplored in the breeding habitat selection context, despite potentially strong fitness consequences. We experimentally tested whether three behavioural traits (aggressiveness, boldness and neophobia) affected the use of heterospecific social information for nest site selection in wild collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis. Flycatchers have previously been found to copy or reject an artificial apparent preference of tits (their main competitors) for a nest site feature: they preferred nest-boxes with the same or a different feature, depending on tit early reproductive investment. Here, we confirmed this result and showed that shy individuals and less aggressive old males (i.e. 2 years old or older) copied tit apparent preference, while more aggressive old males rejected the tit preference. Aggressiveness and boldness may allow males to access more information sources or affect males’ interactions with dominant tits when selecting a nest site. Our study highlights the links between variation in behaviours and social information use for breeding habitat selection and calls for further work to explore underlying mechanisms.

Aim: Nest building is widespread among animals. Nests may provide receptacles for eggs, developing offspring and the parents, and protect them from adverse environmental conditions. Nests may also indicate the quality of the territory and its owner and can be considered as an extended phenotype of its builder(s). Nests may, thus, function as a sexual and social signal. Here, we examined ecological and abiotic factors—temperature, nest predation and interspecific information utilization—shaping geographical variation in a specific nest structure—hair and feather cover of eggs—and its function as an extended phenotype before incubation in great (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) across Europe. We also tested whether egg covering is associated with reproductive success of great tits. Location: Fourteen different study sites and 28 populations across Europe. Taxon: Parus major, Cyanistes caeruleus. Methods: We recorded clutch coverage estimates and collected egg covering nest material from the tit nests. We also measured nest specific breeding parameters and phenotypic measurements on adults. We tested whether mean spring temperatures, nest predation rates and flycatcher (Ficedula spp) densities in the study areas explain the large‐scale geographical variation of clutch coverage and reproductive success of tits. Results: The degree of egg coverage of great tits increased with lower mean spring temperature, higher nest predation rate and higher flycatcher density. We did not find egg covering of blue tits to be associated with any of the ecological or abiotic factors. Moreover, egg covering of great tits was not associated with reproductive success in our cross‐sectional data, yet a rigorous assessment of fitness effects would require long‐term data. Main conclusions: Our findings suggest that, in great tits, egg covering may simultaneously provide thermal insulation against cold temperatures during egg‐laying in spring and also represent a counte

* Secondary hole-nesting birds that do not construct nest holes themselves and hence regularly breed in nest boxes constitute important model systems for field studies in many biological disciplines with hundreds of scientists and amateurs involved. Those research groups are spread over wide geographic areas that experience considerable variation in environmental conditions, and researchers provide nest boxes of varying designs that may inadvertently introduce spatial and temporal variation in reproductive parameters. * We quantified the relationship between mean clutch size and nest box size and material after controlling for a range of environmental variables in four of the most widely used model species in the Western Palaearctic: great tit Parus major, blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus, pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and collared flycatcher F. albicollis from 365 populations and 79 610 clutches. * Nest floor area and nest box material varied non-randomly across latitudes and longitudes, showing that scientists did not adopt a random box design. Clutch size increased with nest floor area in great tits, but not in blue tits and flycatchers. Clutch size of blue tits was larger in wooden than in concrete nest boxes. * These findings demonstrate that the size of nest boxes and material used to construct nest boxes can differentially affect clutch size in different species. The findings also suggest that the nest box design may affect not only focal species, but also indirectly other species through the effects of nest box design on productivity and therefore potentially population density and hence interspecific competition. [KEYWORDS: geographic location habitat latitude longitude nest box floor area nest box material], * Secondary hole-nesting birds that do not construct nest holes themselves and hence regularly breed in nest boxes constitute important model systems for field studies in many biological disciplines with hundreds of scientists and amateurs involved. Those research groups are spread over wide geographic areas that experience considerable variation in environmental conditions, and researchers provide nest boxes of varying designs that may inadvertently introduce spatial and temporal variation in reproductive parameters. * We quantified the relationship between mean clutch size and nest box size and material after controlling for a range of environmental variables in four of the most widely used model species in the Western Palaearctic: great tit Parus major, blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus, pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and collared flycatcher F. albicollis from 365 populations and 79 610 clutches. * Nest floor area and nest box material varied non-randomly across latitudes and longitudes, showing that scientists did not adopt a random box design. Clutch size increased with nest floor area in great tits, but not in blue tits and flycatchers. Clutch size of blue tits was larger in wooden than in concrete nest boxes. * These findings demonstrate that the size of nest boxes and material used to construct nest boxes can differentially affect clutch size in different species. The findings also suggest that the nest box design may affect not only focal species, but also indirectly other species through the effects of nest box design on productivity and therefore potentially population density and hence interspecific competition. [KEYWORDS: geographic location habitat latitude longitude nest box floor area nest box material]