How Genetics Plays A Role In Avian Migration

Avian migration is an adaptive response to seasonal environments, which means that birds move from one region to another on migratory routes due to environmental factors. Migratory behavior is ubiquitous within and among many bird species, and this poster will review two studies of how migratory behavior is affected on a genetic level as well as how avian migration has independently evolved in many different lineages. A study of the Eurasian blackcap from southern France demonstrates how environmental factors and parent lineages affect the genetic behavior of migration. This study also demonstrated how sedentary populations of birds have been shown to evolve into migratory populations numerous times, suggesting that cryptic migratory traits are already present in many sedentary birds. Many bird species have also been seen to possess unique migratory routes, though when two birds from differing species produce a hybrid offspring, these offspring sometimes follow an intermediate or inferior migratory route. This behavior could lead to low fitness of hybrid birds which could result in speciation between different avian species