Linking migration and microbiota at a major stopover site in a long-distance avian migrant.

ABSTRACT: Migration is one of the most physical and energetically demanding periods in an individual bird's life. The composition of the bird's gut or cloacal microbiota can temporarily change during migration, likely due to differences in diets, habitats and other environmental conditions experienced en route. However, how physiological condition, migratory patterns, and other drivers interact to affect microbiota composition of migratory birds is still unclear. We sampled the cloacal bacterial microbiota of a long-distance migrant, the steppe buzzard (Buteo buteo vulpinus), at an important spring stopover bottleneck in Eilat, Israel, after crossing the ca. 1800 km Sahara Desert. We examined whether diversity and composition of the cloacal microbiota varied with body condition, sex, movement patter

SUBMITTER: Thie N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9641824 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature