Feathered friends favor fruity flavonoids

Fruit-eating birds actively select fruit with the highest concentrations of antioxidants – compounds that help them maintain a healthy immune system – ecologists have found. This is the first time that a group of antioxidants known as flavonoids have been found to boost the immune system in studies on living animals, as opposed to test-tube studies. The results are published online in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology.