When you're a sitting duck, you learn to adapt

[PhysOrg]

When sitting on a nest to incubate eggs, a bird is physically stuck and most vulnerable to attacks of any kind, so coping without stress and other significant costs is important. For Common Loons, black flies are a common blood-feeding pest and can cause nest abandonment and decreased fledging rates. This has impacts on not only individual pair success, but on population dynamics as well. A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances presents some of the best data to date supporting hypotheses about the effects that black flies have on Common Loon nesting behavior and success.

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