The evolution of honest animal communication is mostly understood through the handicap principle, which is intrinsically dependent on the concept of individual quality: low-quality individuals are...

Intimate symbiotic relationships between species (e.g., between a larger ‘host’ and a smaller ‘symbiont’) span the range from mutualism to parasitism. The nature of a symbiotic relationship is not...

It is well-established that plumage colours are important for avian visual communication and are used to signal social information. Yet, little is known about the ability of birds to modify the...

Population expansions of successful species have gained importance as a major conservation and management concern. The success of these ‘winners’ is widely attributed to their high adaptability and...

The consequences of symbiont transmission strategies are better understood than their adaptive causes. Feather mites are permanent ectosymbionts of birds assumed to transmit mainly vertically and...