New AFAR study investigates how some songbirds adjust their bodies to inhale and distribute oxygen to blood vessels and flight muscles during migratory seasons.
Advanced Facility for Avian Research
Bird brains can flick switch to perceive Earth’s magnetic field
New study from Western’s Advanced Facility for Avian Research explores a brain region that migratory birds use to perceive Earth’s magnetic field.
Fear of predators causes PTSD-like changes in brains of wild animals
Fear can be measured in the brain and fearful life-threatening events can leave quantifiable long-lasting traces in the neural circuitry of the brain with enduring effects on behaviour, as shown most clearly in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A new study by...
Mercury linked to ‘dramatic’ decline of migratory songbirds in North America
New findings from Western University support the scientific opinion that mercury is one of the determining factors for the dramatic declines of many migratory songbird populations across North America. In the study, recently published in the influential Journal of...
New study shows traffic noise can affect brain and learning ability in birds
An international study led by researchers at Western University's Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) has shown that birds living in congested cities are greatly affected by persistent traffic noise and that their brains and learning ability are seriously...