The paper discusses the food supply of the vector of malaria mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, which are birds of tropical regions of West Africa. Birds, as distant migrants, penetrate high latitudes and contribute to the spread of malaria in Europe and other countries of the northern hemisphere. The results of the studies show that the main role in the choice of prey objects by female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes birds is played by the nesting and forage biotopes of birds, which are comfortable for mosquito breeding. Probably, female mosquitoes use non-feathered parts of the body of adult birds for feeding unfeathered or weakly feathered chicks in nests. The circulation of Plasmodium falciparum includes populations of birds, primarily water, near-water and marsh complexes, as well as birds, the development of which takes place in specific conditions of a closed space in holes, hollows and closed nests. The Anopheles gambiae mosquito in this system plays the role of a carrier of Plasmodium falciparum not only among populations of birds and mammals, but also among humans, which determines the range of tropical malaria, which is a natural focal vector-borne disease. The authors have identified 37 species of birds carriers of malaria in natural and anthropogenic biocoenoses of Mali (West Africa). The most numerous during the migration and nesting period are birds of the aquatic, near-water and meadow-bog complexes (herons, herons, waders) distant migrants on the territory of Russia and neighboring countries. The risk areas include, first of all, the southern regions Astrakhan Region, Rostov Region and Krasnodar Region.

The paper examines ecological and genetic characteristics of hybrids of yellow wagtails: yellow white-eared wagtail Motacilla flava beema and yellow-fronted wagtail Motacilla lutea . At present, in the zone of contact between closely related forms of yellow wagtails, a system of their spatial and reproductive interaction with each other has been formed under conditions of wide sympatry. This interaction is manifested in the existence and maintenance in the population samples of three components of their genetic system: the genotypes M. flava , M. lutea , and the light-headed hybrid form M. f. beema M. lutea . The new data obtained significantly supplement the understanding of the intraspecific interaction of three forms: M. flava , M. lutea , and the light-headed hybrid form M. f. beema M. lutea . Light-headed hybrids M. f. beema M. lutea have their own specific stable characters at different levels: morphological, behavioral, and molecular genetic as confirmation of the genetic interaction existing in natural populations between the two species, which is an interspecies mechanism for maintaining their structure. In the zone of contact between M. flava and M. lutea , unlimited hybridization of these species occurs and mixed pairs are formed. In this case, the isolation of light-headed hybrid forms with a characteristic manifestation of various groups of characters: morphological - the color of the plumage of the head; genetic - distinguishing light-headed hybrids from the original species ( M. flava and M. lutea ). This phenomenon can act as a mechanism for maintaining the integrity of the species of yellow wagtails - both the yellow wagtail M. flava and the yellow-fronted wagtail M. lutea due to the constantly occurring interspecific hybridization in areas of wide sympatry within a single polytypic complex.