Spatial, temporal, molecular, and intraspec parameters of wild birds in Georgia, USAq

Blood parasites have long been recognized as common in wild bird species; however, their potential role as disease and their influence on avian ecology has been widely dis (Loye and Zuk, 1991). The variation in the prevalence of blood par-asites among species of birds has been used to test hypotheses about the effects of sexual selection, parental investment in disease resistance, and how vector abundance influences infection. In fact, infections with macro and micro-parasites are recognized as one of the most important selective pressures on birds (Seegar et al., 1976; Arriero et al., 2008). However, many factors (including environmental parameters that can influence vector abundance) q This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited