Abstract

Haemosporidian parasites infect birds globally and impact host fitness, ecology, and evolution. Investigating associations between birds and haemosporidian parasites in a community context is critical for decoding eco-evolutionary dynamics and disease spillover risks. Here, we identify the major biases and gaps in community-level avian haemosporidian research and propose a framework to advance the field. First, we emphasize the need for standardised sampling, integrative diagnostics, and public availability of meta and sequence data. Further, we highlight priority research areas for the field, including reducing geographic and taxonomic biases, improving phenological knowledge, and integrating vector sampling. These advances are critical to understand avian-haemosporidian community assembly, transmission dynamics and to predict future disease spillover risks.