Yoav Perlman

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Managing Director at BirdLife Israel

Trading-off food and safety is considered a predominant component of foraging behavior. We examined whether predators’ response to potential prey is state-dependent, and suggest that risk of injury while pursuing the prey affects the predators’ foraging behavior in a similar manner as predation risk affects prey foraging behavior. We examined how t...

In war and conflict zones, the jamming of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNNS) signals by military forces disrupts the tracking of tagged animals, and has increased in frequency following the recent escalation of conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Such disruption to data collection strongly hampers research into the protection an...

The world Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) population is considered Endangered and is rapidly declining across most of it range. Eilat, in southernIsrael, is a bottleneck for this species on its migration route fromAfrica in spring. We conducted a series of surveys, counting the passing Steppe Eagles in springs 2015 to 2018 and collecting data abou...

The Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is an abundant, polytypic Palearctic bird.

The Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is an abundant, polytypic Palearctic bird. Validity of some of its subspecies is controversial and birds from some parts of the species range remain unclassified taxonomically. The relationships among populations from different geographic areas have not been sufficiently explored with molecular data. In...

Phylogenetic relationships of mtDNA CytB haplotypes. Bayesian tree representing relationships among CytB clades of Common Chiffchaffs and other chiffchaff species. GenBank accession numbers and inferred subspecies assignment are listed on the right. Numbers next to branches indicate their posterior probability values. (PDF)

All sampled individuals used in this study with GenBank accession numbers. (XLSX)

Land-use change is the single most important cause of global biodiversity loss. Over millennia, European grassland birds concentrated in low-intensity agro-steppe habitats that are now experiencing intensification largely in line with European market forces. Great Bustard (Otis tarda, GB) is a globally threatened species and a symbol of the Ibe...

Golden Nightjar Caprimulgus eximius is an apparently sedentary sub-Saharan species with a breeding range extending from Senegal and Mauritania to Sudan. Although genetic studies of nightjars and related Caprimulgiformes have been published previously, none has included Golden Nightjar. In this study, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA of a Golden Nightj...

Based on information obtained from publications, online material and experienced birdwatchers we describe changes in the breeding avifauna of Israel between 2003 and 2016. We provide details on nine species that were found breeding in Israel during this period for the first time (Common Shelduck, Great Cormorant, Black-winged Kite, Caspian Tern, Wh...

Illegal killing/taking of birds is a growing concern across the Mediterranean. However, there are few quantitative data on the species and countries involved. We assessed numbers of individual birds of each species killed/taken illegally in each Mediterranean country per year, using a diverse range of data sources and incorporating expert knowledge...

The extent, duration and timing of post-juvenile, post-breeding and prebreeding moults of two members of the Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus complex – ‘Daurian Shrike’ L. i. isabellinus and ‘Turkestan Shrike’ L. i. phoenicuroides – are discussed. Using data from museum specimens and field photographs, significant differences were found in the...

Based on a distinctive call, differences in plumage and a preliminary genetic analysis, the ‘Caucasian Water Pipit’ Anthus spinoletta coutellii may represent a separate species within the Rock A. petrosus/Water Pipit A. spinoletta complex. The differences between the taxa currently treated as three races of a single species, the Water Pipit A. spin...

Book review

Nubian Nightjar Caprimulgus nubicus is the smallest and rarest of the four species of nightjar breeding in the Western Palearctic. It is quite widespread in East Africa, but in the Western Palearctic it is restricted to Israel, Jordan and possibly Saudi Arabia. The form in Israel and Jordan, C. n. tamaricis, has an extremely restricted range and it...

Nightjars are the only nocturnal, aerial, insectivorous taxon of birds that locates its prey visually. As such, they are subject to substantial predation risk while foraging in periods of the night with relatively strong light intensity. Further, nightjars are small endotherms that often use facultative hypothermia in order to reduce energy costs d...

The Khao Yai bird had some distinctive features that made its identification rather straightforward. The main identification problems were separating Blyth's Pipit from Richard's Pipit, especially the eastern subspecies A. r. dauricus and A. r. sinensis, and Paddyfield Pipit. Alström (pers. comm.) considers that dauricus and sinensis are merely var...