The capacity for flight varies widely among bird species and influences their ecology, evolution, and conservation. Variation in vagility is influenced by behavioral responses to the nature of gaps between habitat elements as well as intrinsic characteristics of the species, particularly physiological traits influencing the physical capacity for sustained flight. Here, we briefly summarize the current state of knowledge revealing the wide variety of movement capacities of Neotropical birds. We then review current knowledge of avian muscle physiology and the role that muscle characteristics may play in influencing movement behavior. We argue that fundamental shifts in our understanding of avian muscle physiology and the influence of physiology on movement behavior remain to be elucidated, in part because knowledge from other vertebrates is being inappropriately applied to birds. In particular, critical evaluation of assumptions applied to birds from detailed studies of mammals is needed. Moving away from simple binary categorizations of avian flight muscles as “red vs. white” or “fast vs. slow” to characterize the cellular mechanisms and specific isoforms active at various life stages or seasons is also needed. An increasingly large number of avian species with a wide array of flight styles from hummingbirds to soaring raptors are appearing in GenBank, facilitating detailed physiological and evolutionary comparisons among species. Properly assessing the muscle physiological characteristics of Neotropical bird species with a wide array of movement capacities may improve our abilities to predict which species are most sensitive to landscape fragmentation and other factors that influence dispersal and migration.

中文翻译：

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把一些肌肉放在后面：了解热带鸟类的运动能力

飞行能力因鸟类而异，并影响它们的生态、进化和保护。可变性的变化受对栖息地元素之间间隙性质的行为反应以及物种的内在特征的影响，特别是影响持续飞行的身体能力的生理特征。在这里，我们简要总结了当前的知识状况，揭示了新热带鸟类的各种运动能力。然后，我们回顾了鸟类肌肉生理学的当前知识以及肌肉特征可能在影响运动行为中所起的作用。我们认为，我们对鸟类肌肉生理学的理解的根本转变以及生理学对运动行为的影响仍有待阐明，部分原因是其他脊椎动物的知识被不适当地应用于鸟类。特别是，需要对哺乳动物详细研究中应用于鸟类的假设进行批判性评估。还需要将鸟类飞行肌肉的简单二元分类转变为“红色与白色”或“快与慢”，以表征在不同生命阶段或季节活跃的细胞机制和特定同种型。GenBank 中出现了越来越多的鸟类物种，它们具有从蜂鸟到高飞猛禽的各种飞行方式，有助于物种之间进行详细的生理和进化比较。