Abstract
The timing of migration can have important survival impacts, as birds must synchronize their movements with favourable environmental conditions to reach their destination. The timing of arrival at and duration of migratory stopover may be largely governed by environmental conditions experienced en route as well as by endogenous factors, but our understanding of these processes is limited. We used light-level geolocators to collect start-to-finish spatio-temporal migration data for a declining aerial insectivore, the Purple Martin (Progne subis), that travels seasonally between North and South America. Using data obtained for birds originating from range-wide breeding populations, our objectives were to test intrinsic and extrinsic hypotheses for migration stopover duration as well as to identify important stopover regions during fall migration. We examined whether breeding latitude, fall migration timing, age, sex or habitat quality at stopover sites (measured using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) influenced the duration of stopovers. We found that most individuals rely on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Honduras, and Nicaragua for stopovers during fall migration, where duration ranged from 1 to 36 days (average 6.8 ± 8.2). Stopovers in these regions were later and of longer duration for more northern breeding populations. Only breeding latitude predicted stopover duration, and not habitat quality at stopovers, lending support to the hypothesis that duration is prescribed by endogenous factors. The important core stopover regions we documented could be targeted for conservation efforts, particularly for steeply-declining, more northern breeding populations that have greater stopover duration in these areas.
Zusammenfassung
Der Breitengrad des Brutgebietes und nicht die Habitatqualität liefert bei einem langstreckenziehenden Singvogel Vorhersagen über den zeitlichen Ablauf der Rastpausen auf dem ZugDie zeitliche Abstimmung des Zuggeschehens kann wichtige Auswirkungen für das Überleben haben, da die Vögel ihre Bewegungen mit günstigen Umweltbedingungen synchronisieren müssen, um ihr Ziel zu erreichen. Der Zeitpunkt der Ankunft und die Verweildauer am Rastplatz können zum großen Teil von den unterwegs erlebten Umweltbedingungen als auch von endogenen Faktoren bestimmt werden, allerdings ist unser Verständnis dieser Prozesse begrenzt. Wir setzten Hell-Dunkel-Geolokatoren ein, um zwischen Abflug und Ankunft räumlich-zeitliche Zugdaten eines im Bestand abnehmenden insektenfressenden Flugjägers, der Purpurschwalbe (Progne subis), zu sammeln, welche saisonal zwischen Nord- und Südamerika wechselt. Anhand von Daten, die von Vögeln aus Brutpopulationen des gesamten Verbreitungsgebietes stammten, wollten wir intrinsische und extrinsische Hypothesen zur Dauer von Zwischenstopps auf dem Zug überprüfen sowie wichtige Rastgebiete auf dem Herbstzug ausfindig machen. Wir untersuchten, ob der Breitengrad des Brutgebietes, der zeitliche Ablauf des Herbstzuges, Alter, Geschlecht oder die Habitatqualität an den Rastplätzen (gemessen anhand des normalisierten differenzierten Vegetationsindex; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) die Rastdauer beeinflussten. Wir stellten fest, dass die meisten Individuen die Ostküste der Yucatan-Halbinsel und Honduras sowie Nicaragua für Zwischenstopps auf dem Herbstzug nutzten, wobei die Verweildauer zwischen 1 und 36 (im Mittel 6.8 ± 8.2) Tagen betrug. Weiter nördlich brütende Populationen machten später in dieser Region Rast und blieben länger. Allein der Breitengrad des Brutgebietes, nicht die Habitatqualität der Rastplätze, lieferte Voraussagen über die Verweildauer, was die Hypothese stützt, dass die Dauer von endogenen Faktoren bestimmt wird. Die von uns dokumentierten wichtigen Kernrastgebiete könnten als Fokus für Schutzmaßnahmen dienen, insbesondere für rapide abnehmende nördlichere Brutpopulationen, die länger in diesen Gebieten rasten.
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Acknowledgements
We thank J. Detwiler, J. Treberg, L. Lam, and E. McKinnon for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We thank the many Citizen Scientists who assisted with data collection; we are grateful for their enthusiasm and continuing support for the Hemisphere to Hemisphere Purple Martin project (full list of collaborators at http://www.abclab.ca). We thank John Barrow, David Newstead, and Brett Ortego for support and fieldwork at the south Texas field site, and Julie Hovis, James Beatson, Wendell Rogers and Donnie Beard for their work at the South Carolina study site. Funding was provided by the University of Manitoba, Disney’s Conservation Fund, Molson Foundation, and Schad Foundation, Alberta Conservation Association, James L. Baillie Memorial Fund (Bird Studies Canada), Bill and Betty Wasserfall Memorial Award (Ontario Bird Banding Association), Camrose Wildlife Stewardship Society, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks, and Wildlife Foundation, and Mitacs Globalink. Light-level geolocators used at the Texas Panhandle site were purchased by the USA Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration in cooperation with Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC. The research in this manuscript complies with the current laws of the country in which the work was performed.
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Communicated by N. Chernetsov.
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Loon, A.V., Ray, J.D., Savage, A. et al. Migratory stopover timing is predicted by breeding latitude, not habitat quality, in a long-distance migratory songbird. J Ornithol 158, 745–752 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-017-1435-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-017-1435-x