Abstract
The annual cycle of migrating birds is shaped by their seasonal movements between breeding and non-breeding sites. Studying how migratory populations are linked throughout the annual cycle—migratory connectivity, is crucial to understanding the population dynamics of migrating bird species. This requires the consideration not only of spatial scales as has been the main focus to date but also of temporal scales: only when both aspects are taken into account, the degree of migratory connectivity can be properly defined. We investigated the migration behaviour of hoopoes (Upupa epops) from four breeding populations across Europe and characterised migration routes to and from the breeding grounds, location of non-breeding sites and the timing of key migration events. Migration behaviour was found to vary both within and amongst populations, and even though the spatial migratory connectivity amongst the populations was weak, temporal connectivity was strong with differences in timing amongst populations, but consistent timing within populations. The combination of diverse migration routes within populations and co-occurrence on the non-breeding grounds between populations might promote exchange between breeding populations. As a result, it might make hoopoes and other migrating bird species with similar strategies more resilient to future habitat or climatic changes and stabilise population trends.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the numerous people that have helped conduct the fieldwork, in particular Juan José Soler and Laura Arco in Spain, Frank Raden in Germany and Jael Hoffmann, Muriel Perron, Nico Guillod, Valentijn van Bergen, Carolyn Nabholz, Başak Şentürk, Anna Sandor, Valentina Falchi, Barbara Hildebrandt, Ángela Martínez García, Roman Bühler and Lara Moreno Zárate in Switzerland. RVW was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number 31003A_138354). The fieldwork in Spain was supported by the European funds of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FEDER, CGL2010-19233-C03-01, CGL2010-19233-C03-03). The Swiss Federal Office for Environment contributed financial support for the development of the geolocators (UTF-Nr. 254, 332, 363, 400), and geolocators were acquired with the financial support of “Stiftung Accentus”.
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van Wijk, R.E., Schaub, M., Hahn, S. et al. Diverse migration strategies in hoopoes (Upupa epops) lead to weak spatial but strong temporal connectivity. Sci Nat 105, 42 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-018-1566-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-018-1566-9