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Background  Avian malaria ( Plasmodium sp. ) is globally widespread, but considerable variation exists in infection (presence/absence) patterns at small spatial scales. This variation can be driven by variation in ecology, demography, and phenotypic characters, in particular those that influence the host’s resistance. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the host’s initial immune responses to combat parasitic invasion. However, long-term ROS exposure can harm the host and the redox response therefore needs to be adjusted according to infection stage and host phenotype. Here we use experimental and correlational approaches to assess the relative importance of host density, habitat composition, individual level variation and redox physiology for  Plasmodium  infection in a wild population of great tits,  Parus major .    Results  We found that 36% of the great tit population was infected with  Plasmodium  (22%  P. relictum  and 15%  P. circumflexum  prevalence) and that patterns of infection were  Plasmodium  species-specific. First, the infection of  P. circumflexum  was significantly higher in areas with experimental increased host density ,  whereas variation in  P. relictum  infection was mainly attributed to age, sex and reproduction. Second, great tit antioxidant responses – total and oxidizied glutathione - showed age- , sex- and  Plasmodium  species-specific patterns between infected and uninfected individuals, but reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) showed only a weak explanatory power for patterns of  P. relictum  infection. Instead ROM significantly increased with  Plasmodium  parasitaemia.    Conclusions  These results identify some key factors that influence  Plasmodium  infection in wild birds, and provide a potential explanation for the underlying physiological basis of recently documented negative effects of chronic avian malaria on survival and reproductive success.

Explaining variance of avian malaria infection in the wild: the importance of host density, habitat, individual life-history and oxidative stress