Global movement patterns of migratory birds illustrate their fascinating physical and
physiological abilities to cross continents and oceans. During their voyages, most birds land …

Using optimality perspectives is now regarded as an essential way of analysing and
understanding adaptations and behavioural strategies in bird migration. Optimization …

Summary 1 Time and energy are key currencies in animal ecology, and judicious
management of these is a primary focus for natural selection. At present, however, there are …

There is mounting evidence that global climate change has extended growing seasons,
changed distribution patterns, and altered the phenology of flowering, breeding, and …

Avian fat storage is associated with both benefits and costs. Although the benefits of
maintaining higher energetic reserves have long been considered, the associated costs …

Populations of migratory birds are usually considered to be limited by conditions in breeding
or wintering areas, but some might be limited by conditions encountered on migration. This …

The full magnitude and complexity of bird migration have not been possible to grasp until
after the revolutionary discoveries made with the aid of, eg, ringing, systematic field …

Migratory birds are physiologically specialized to accumulate massive fat stores (up to 50–
60% of body mass), and to transport and oxidize fatty acids at very high rates to sustain flight …

Annual or seasonal migrations occur in all classes of vertebrates. Among higher vertebrates,
the ecology of migration has been most thoroughly studied in birds, in which a substantial …

In this paper we review the existing methods of quantifying avian wingtip shape, and
compare their efficiency at detecting morphological adaptations to migration. We use …