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Steve Portugal is a British zoologist and animal physiologist working in avian energetics and behavioral physiology.
Portugal was educated at The University of Wales Aberystwyth where he was awarded a BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology with Zoology in 2001, and The University of Wales Bangor where he did an MSc in Ecology in 2003. [1] He was awarded his PhD in 2008 at The University of Birmingham studying the "Ecophysiological aspects of the annual cycle of barnacle geese". [2] In 2014 was appointed as a Lecturer at Royal Holloway University of London, where in 2018 he was promoted to Reader. In 2024 he was appointed Associate Professor of Animal Behaviour at The University of Oxford and St Hugh's College.
His research looks at animal behaviour and physiology, and he has published over 100 academic papers.
He has looked at the energy expenditure of migratory birds and the physiology of feather moult, by tracking wild barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) from Svalbard to Scotland, using biologging technology. [3] Portugal's team have studied avian vision, and the sensory ecology behind collisions with anthropogenic objects, notably with birds of prey. [4] [5] [6] Portugal has studied the etiquette of aggression in Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens), [7] [8] [9] and the developmental energetics of avian brood parasites. [10] [11] [12] [13]
Much of Portugal's work has focused on avian flight and aerodynamics. His research has shown how birds fly in V-formation, [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] using Northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) that were part of a European reintroduction scheme. His team has worked extensively with homing pigeons (Columba livia), demonstrating how individuals compromise on speed to stay together as a flock, and the increased energy expenditure required to fly as a group. [19]
Other work has focused on the eggshell collection at The Natural History Museum, where Portugal is a Scientific Associate, demonstrating how eggshell properties have evolved. [20] [21] [22] Work with secretary birds (Sagittarius serpentarius) demonstrated their capacity to deliver a kick 5 times their own body weight, [23] while his studies on African harrier-hawks (Polyboroides typus) showed their unique visual system designed to support their unusual foraging technique of extracting food from tree holes. [24]
In 2019 he was awarded the Bicentenary Medal of the Linnean Society, [25] awarded annually in recognition of work done by a biologist under the age of 40 years. He has appeared in numerous nature documentaries, including David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities. [26] Portugal is very active in writing popular science articles, writing about migration for the British Trust for Ornithology, [27] eggshells for Birdguides, [28] Cassowaries for BBC Wildlife magazine, [29] and numerous pieces for The Conversation. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
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Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. The study of birds is called ornithology.
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.
The bar-headed goose is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It is known for the extreme altitudes it reaches when migrating across the Himalayas.
Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and mortality.
The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such names as totipalmates or steganopodes. Most have a bare throat patch, and the nostrils have evolved into dysfunctional slits, forcing them to breathe through their mouths. They also have a pectinate nail on their longest toe. This is shaped like a comb and is used to brush out and separate their feathers. They feed on fish, squid, or similar marine life. Nesting is colonial, but individual birds are monogamous. The young are altricial, hatching from the egg helpless and naked in most. They lack a brood patch.
Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes. The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae, respectively. The cuckoo order Cuculiformes is one of three that make up the Otidimorphae, the other two being the turacos and the bustards. The family Cuculidae contains 150 species, which are divided into 33 genera.
The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe. The species also occurs in smaller numbers in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.
Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology to describe a social structure in which juveniles and sexually mature adolescents of either one or both sexes remain in association with their parents and help them raise subsequent broods or litters, instead of dispersing and beginning to reproduce themselves. This phenomenon was first studied in birds where it occurs most frequently, but it is also known in animals from many different groups including mammals and insects. It is a simple form of co-operative breeding. The effects of helpers usually amount to a net benefit, however, benefits are not uniformly distributed by all helpers nor across all species that exhibit this behaviour. There are multiple proposed explanations for the behaviour, but its variability and broad taxonomic occurrences result in simultaneously plausible theories.
Egg incubation is the process by which an egg, of oviparous (egg-laying) animals, develops an embryo within the egg, after the egg's formation and ovipositional release. Egg incubation is done under favorable environmental conditions, possibly by brooding and hatching the egg.
Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's. The strategy involves a form of aggressive mimicry called Kirbyan mimicry.
Magnetoreception is a sense which allows an organism to detect the Earth's magnetic field. Animals with this sense include some arthropods, molluscs, and vertebrates. The sense is mainly used for orientation and navigation, but it may help some animals to form regional maps. Experiments on migratory birds provide evidence that they make use of a cryptochrome protein in the eye, relying on the quantum radical pair mechanism to perceive magnetic fields. This effect is extremely sensitive to weak magnetic fields, and readily disturbed by radio-frequency interference, unlike a conventional iron compass.
Christopher Miles Perrins, is Emeritus Fellow of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and His Majesty's Warden of the Swans since 1993.
Air sacs are spaces within an organism where there is the constant presence of air. Among modern animals, birds possess the most air sacs (9–11), with their extinct dinosaurian relatives showing a great increase in the pneumatization in their bones. Birds use air sacs for respiration as well as a number of other things. Theropods, like Aerosteon, have many air sacs in the body that are not just in bones, and they can be identified as the more primitive form of modern bird airways. Sauropods are well known for the large number of air pockets in their bones, although one theropod, Deinocheirus, shows a rivalling number of air pockets.
Horsfield's bronze cuckoo is a small cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Its size averages 22g and is distinguished by its green and bronze iridescent colouring on its back and incomplete brown barring from neck to tail. Horsfield's bronze cuckoo can be destiguished from other bronze cuckoos by its white eyebrow and brown eye stripe. The Horsfield's bronze cuckoo is common throughout Australia preferring the drier open woodlands away from forested areas. This species was formerly placed in the genus Chrysococcyx.
The Phaethontiformes are an order of birds. They contain one extant family, the tropicbirds (Phaethontidae), and one extinct family Prophaethontidae from the early Cenozoic. Several fossil genera have been described, with well-preserved fossils known as early as the Paleocene. The group's origins may lie even earlier if the enigmatic waterbird Novacaesareala from the latest Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene of New Jersey is considered a tropicbird.
Vision is the most important sense for birds, since good eyesight is essential for safe flight. Birds have a number of adaptations which give visual acuity superior to that of other vertebrate groups; a pigeon has been described as "two eyes with wings". Birds are theropods, and the avian eye resembles that of other sauropsids, with ciliary muscles that can change the shape of the lens rapidly and to a greater extent than in the mammals. Birds have the largest eyes relative to their size in the animal kingdom, and movement is consequently limited within the eye's bony socket. In addition to the two eyelids usually found in vertebrates, bird's eyes are protected by a third transparent movable membrane. The eye's internal anatomy is similar to that of other vertebrates, but has a structure, the pecten oculi, unique to birds.
Mirandornithes is a clade that consists of flamingos and grebes. Many scholars use the term Phoenicopterimorphae for the superorder containing flamingoes and grebes.
Dinosaur reproduction shows correlation with archosaur physiology, with newborns hatching from eggs that were laid in nests. Dinosaurs did not nurture their offspring as mammals typically do, and because dinosaurs did not nurse, it is likely that most dinosaurs were capable of surviving on their own after hatching. Although, parental care may have been required for some dinosaur species, as shown by fossil evidence. Dinosaur reproduction also required a mate; evidence of sexual dimorphism and courting displays have been found from fossil scrapings in sandstone and feathers on dinosaurs that lacked flight.
Katherine Louise "Kate" Buchanan is an avian behavioural ecologist currently working in Deakin University's School of Life and Environment Sciences. Her research focuses on investigating how sexual selection has shaped the evolution of complex songs in birds and ultimately how this is reflected in the evolution of the brain itself.
The year 2018 in archosaur paleontology was eventful. Archosaurs include the only living dinosaur group — birds — and the reptile crocodilians, plus all extinct dinosaurs, extinct crocodilian relatives, and pterosaurs. Archosaur palaeontology is the scientific study of those animals, especially as they existed before the Holocene Epoch began about 11,700 years ago. The year 2018 in paleontology included various significant developments regarding archosaurs.
