A new paper involving Environment Institute member Phill Cassey, as well as Gavin Thomas (Bristol University, Steven Portugal (University of Birmingham & the Royal Veterinatry College, Hertfordshire), Golo Maurer (University of Adelaide & University of Birmingham), Mark Hauber (City University of New York), Tomas Grim (Palacky University), George Lovell (University of St Andrews) and Ivan Miksik (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) has recently been published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Phil Cassey, one of the authors on this paper

The paper titled, ‘Why are birds’ eggs colourful? Eggshell pigments co-vary with life-history and nesting ecology among British breeding non-passerine birds’ investigates how the concentrations of avian eggshell pigments vary among related species, and whether this variability is associated with either eggshell appearance and/or species life-history traits. Suprisingly, this element remains poorly understood as biologists have tended to focus on the structure and biochemistry of the avian eggshell instead.

Download the paper to find out more about this research.