RESUMO
Colombia is the country with the highest bird diversity in the world. Despite active research in ornithology, compelling morphological information of most bird species is still sparse. However, morphological information is the baseline to understand how species respond to environmental variation and how ecosystems respond to species loss. As part of a national initiative, the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt in collaboration with 12 Colombian institutions and seven biological collections, measured up to 15 morphological traits of 9,892 individuals corresponding to 606 species: 3,492 from individuals captured in field and 6,400 from museum specimens. Species measured are mainly distributed in high Andean forest, páramo, and wetland ecosystems. Seven ornithological collections in Colombia and 18 páramo complexes throughout Colombia were visited from 2013 to 2015. The morphological traits involved measurements from bill (total and exposed culmen, bill width and depth), wing (length, area, wingspan, and the distance between longest primary and longest secondary), tail (length and shape), tarsus (length), hallux (length and claw hallux), and mass. The number of measured specimens per species was variable, ranging from 1 to 321 individuals with a median of four individuals per species. Overall, this database gathered morphological information for >30% of Colombian bird diversity. No copyright, proprietary, or cost restrictions apply; the data should be cited appropriately when used.
Assuntos
Aves , Ecossistema , Animais , Colômbia , Fenótipo , Áreas AlagadasRESUMO
Individuals from different taxa, including songbirds, differ consistently in behaviour and personality when facing different situations. Although our understanding of animal behaviour has increased, knowledge about between-individual differences in cognitive abilities is still limited. By using an experimental approach and a free-living songbird (Parus major) as a model, we attempted to understand between-individual differences in habituation to playbacks (as a proxy of learning speed), by investigating the role of personality, age and reproductive investment (clutch size). Pre-breeding males were tested for exploration (a proxy of personality) in standardized conditions. In addition, the same individuals were exposed to three playbacks in the field during incubation. Birds significantly moved less, stayed further away and overlapped less the playback with successive playback stimulation. While a decrease in the locomotor behaviour can be explained by personality, differences in habituation of overlapping were predicted by both reproductive investment and personality. Fast explorers habituated less. Moreover, males paired to females with larger clutches did not vary the intensity of overlapping. Since habituation requires information for recognition of non-threatening signals, personality may bias information gathering. While fast explorers may collect less information from the environment, slow explorers (reactive birds) seem to pay attention to environmental clues and collect detailed information. We provided evidence that the rate of habituation of behavioural responses, a proxy of cognitive abilities, may be affected by different factors and in a complex way.