Life-history and ecological variables as drivers of the evolution of avian innate immune defences

Animals rely on immune defences to counteract pathogens and parasites, but investing in immune defences limits the use of shared resources for other functions. Therefore, the strength of immune defences is hypothesised to be shaped by life history or broader ecology. To better understand ecological and evolutionary patterns in innate humoral immune defences in birds, we compiled more than 400 immunological records of more than 100 avian species from about 100 previous studies that applied a standardised protocol to measure haemolysis and haemagglutination. We extracted data on 15 life-history and ecological variables and built phylogenetically-informed comparative models to determine how these variables can explain variation in both immunological indices. We also inferred evolutionary patterns by selecting the best-fitting macroevolutionary models. Our comparative models indicated that several ecological variables, including seasonal stage, sex, age, migration distance, diet type, and c..., , # Data from: Life-history and ecological variables as drivers of the evolution of avian innate immune defences

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.gxd25480n](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gxd25480n)

## Description of the data and file structure

The file **‘20251010_Peng_et_al_multiple_observations_per_species_dataset.xlsx’** contains the raw data for haemagglutination and haemolysis obtained from all (sub)populations included in the selected HLHA studies. It also includes all explanatory variables required for the Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models (BPMMs).

The file **‘20251010_Peng_et_al_one_observation_per_species_dataset.xlsx’** contains the within-species means for haemagglutination and haemolysis. These data were calculated from those in *20251010_Peng_et_al_multiple_observations_per_species_dataset.xlsx*. This file also includes the species-level explanatory variables.

The file **‘20251010_R_Peng_et_al_multiple_observations_per_species_dataset.csv’** is a reformatted version of *‘202...,