Genetics and Evolution of Bird Migration
Open accessAbstract
Bird migration has long been a subject of fascination for humankind and is a behavior that is both intricate and multifaceted. In recent years, advances in technology, particularly in the fields of genomics and animal tracking, have enabled significant progress in our understanding of this phenomenon. In this review, we provide an overview of the latest advancements in the genetics of bird migration, with a particular focus on genomics, and examine various factors that contribute to the evolution of this behavior, including climate change. Integration of research from the fields of genomics, ecology, and evolution can enhance our comprehension of the complex mechanisms involved in bird migration and inform conservation efforts in a rapidly changing world.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Individuals can ascend and descend in social status due to multiple factors including alternative reproductive tactics, seasonal changes, onset of migratory behavior, or changes in the social or ecological environment.
“Individuals can ascend and descend in social status due to multiple factors including alternative reproductive tactics [65], seasonal changes [66], onset of migratory behavior [67,68] or changes in the social or ecological environment.”
From Rapid changes in plasma corticosterone and medial amygdala transcriptome profiles during social status change reveal molecular pathways associated with a major life history transition in mouse dominance hierarchies (2025) · cites this paper as [68]
Section 2 discusses the onset and flexibility of migratory behavior, and Section 4.1 discusses competition, but neither links migration to an individual's ascent or descent in social status. Searches for social status, rank, and dominance in relation to migration found no passage addressing that link; page numbers were not supplied in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.75)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Lower Predation Risk for Migratory Birds at High Latitudes
McKinnon, L., Smith, P. A., Nol, E., Martin, J. L., Doyle, F. I., Abraham, K. F., Gilchrist, H. G., Morrison, R. I. G., & Bêty, J. (2010) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1183010 · Cited by 297 · see citing works
Zhang, M., Moon, C., Chan, G. C.-K., Yang, L., Zheng, F., Conti, A. C., Muglia, L., Muglia, L. J., Storm, D. R., & Wang, H. (2008) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1177-08.2008 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 22
- Liedvogel M. 2019. Genetics of animal and bird migration. In Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, ed. JC Choe, pp. 323-30. New York/London: Academic
- Able KP, Belthoff JR. 1998. Rapid 'evolution' of migratory behaviour in the introduced house finch of eastern North America. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 265:2063-71
- Urbanek RP, Fondow LA, Satyshur CD, Lacy AE, Zimorski SE, et al. 2005. First cohort of migra- tory whooping cranes reintroduced to eastern North America: the first year after release. In Proceedings of the Ninth North American Crane Workshop, January 17-20, 2003, ed. F Chavez-Ramirez, pp. 213-24.
- Chamberlain CP, Bensch S, Feng X, Åkesson S, Andersson T. 2000. Stable isotopes examined across a migratory divide in Scandinavian willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus trochilus and Phylloscopus trochilus acredula) reflect their African winter quarters. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 267:43-48
- Liedvogel M, Lundberg M. 2014. The genetics of migration. In Animal Movement Across Scales, ed. L-A Hansson, S Åkesson, pp. 219-31. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
- Cramp S, Brooks DJ, eds. 1992. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol. 6: Warblers. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
- Ruegg KC, Smith TB. 2002. Not as the crow flies: a historical explanation for circuitous migration in Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus). Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 269:1375-81
- Delmore KE, Fox JW, Irwin DE. 2012. Dramatic intraspecific differences in migratory routes, stopover sites and wintering areas, revealed using light-level geolocators. Proc. R. Soc. B 279:4582-89
- Bay RA, Harrigan RJ, Underwood VL, Gibbs HL, Smith TB, et al. 2018. Genomic signals of selection predict climate-driven population declines in a migratory bird. Science 359:83-86 Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org. Guest (guest) IP: 134.202.181.164 On: Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:00:56
- Pulido F, Berthold P. 2003. Quantitative genetic analysis of migratory behaviour. In Avian Migration, ed. P Berthold, E Gwinner, E Sonnenschein, pp. 53-77. Berlin: Springer
- Åkesson S, Ilieva M, Karagicheva J, Rakhimberdiev E, Tomotani B, et al. 2017. Timing avian long- distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 372:20160252
- Mueller JC, Pulido F, Kempenaers B. 2011. Identification of a gene associated with avian migratory behaviour. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 278:2848-56
- Le Clercq L-S, Bazzi G, Cecere JG, Gianfranceschi L, Grobler JP, et al. 2023. Time trees and clock genes: a systematic review and comparative analysis of contemporary avian migration genetics. Biol. Rev. 98:1051-80
- Veen T, Svedin N, Forsman JT, Hjernquist MB, Qvarnström A, et al. 2007. Does migration of hybrids contribute to post-zygotic isolation in flycatchers? Proc. R. Soc. B 274:707-12
- Väli Ü, Mirski P, Sellis U, Dagys M, Maciorowski G. 2018. Genetic determination of migration strategies in large soaring birds: evidence from hybrid eagles. Proc. R. Soc. B 285:20180855
- Butler PJ. 2016. The physiological basis of bird flight. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 371:20150384
- Jenni L, Winkler R. 2020. Moult and Ageing of European Passerines. London: Bloomsbury Publ. 2nd ed.
- Tonra CM, Reudink MW. 2018. Expanding the traditional definition of molt-migration. Auk 135:1123- 32 Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org. Guest (guest) IP: 134.202.181.164 On: Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:00:56
- Tarka M, Åkesson M, Beraldi D, Hernandez-Sanchez J, Hasselquist D, et al. 2010. A strong quantitative trait locus for wing length on chromosome 2 in a wild population of great reed warblers. Proc. R. Soc. B 277:2361-69 101.
- McWilliams SR, Ramenofsky M, Pierce BJ. 2022. Physiological challenges of migration. In Sturkie's Avian Physiology, ed. CG Scanes, S Dridi, pp. 1311-52. Cambridge, MA: Academic 104.
- Rappole JH. 1995. The Ecology of Migrant Birds: A Neotropical Perspective. Washington, DC: Smithson. Inst. Press 126.
- Liedvogel M, Delmore K. 2018. (Micro) evolutionary changes and the evolutionary potential of bird migration. In Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish, ed. DT Tietze, pp. 109-27. Cham, Switz.: Springer 127.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Milewski, T. M., Lee, W., Young, R. L., Hofmann, H. A., & Curley, J. P. (2025) · PLoS Genetics · doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1011548 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gu, Z., Dixon, A., & Zhan, X.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (AE)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2024-02-15
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 21-43
- ISSN
- 2165-8102 (ISSN-L)
- 2165-8110
- OpenAlex
- W4388075962
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Annual Review of Animal Biosciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31930013, 32125005, 32270455, YSBR-097)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (YSBR-097)
- Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20220295)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
- Keywords
- bird migration, evolution of migration, animal tracking, climate change, bird conservation, migratory behavior
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, Genomics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review