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The good and the bad stopover: behaviours of migrant reed warblers at two contrasting sites

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Abstract

Successful migration for passerine birds depends largely on the quality of stopover habitats, but we still lack complete knowledge of how migrants search for habitats en route and how they behave when landing at poor quality stopover sites. We compared the distance of exploratory movements and stopover durations of the reed warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus, a reedbed habitat specialist, released at suitable (reed bed) and unsuitable (sand dune) stopover sites. Birds tape-lured during nocturnal migration to a sand dune were captured, radio-tagged, released and tracked at two sites of contrasting habitat quality. Lean birds were found to move further in the dunes (max. 300 m) than in reeds (max. 200 m), whereas ‘fat’ individuals at both sites remained stationary. Birds spent just 1 day in the dunes and up to 13 days in the reeds. Our results suggest that some nocturnal migrants with restricted diurnal exploratory movements depend on stopover site selection when ceasing nocturnal flight.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are most grateful to Casimir Bolshakov for supporting this project in many ways and the researchers of the Biological Station Rybachy for helpful discussions. Special thanks are due to Nikita Chernetsov, Julia Delingat and two anonymous reviewers for important comments on earlier drafts. Nikita Chernetsov, Anastasia Tsykalova, Martin Griffiths and Falk Huetmann gave invaluable assistance in producing the English version. Nikolay Poelplau helped with estimation of the location error; Dmitry Kishkinev, Victor Bulyuk, Vitaly Grinkevich, Dmitry Leoke and Valere Martin assisted in the field. The methods used in this study comply with the laws of the Russian Federation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Station Rybachy, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Rybachy, Kaliningrad Region, 238535, Russia

    Pavel Ktitorov, Arseny Tsvey & Andrey Mukhin

  2. Institut für Vogelforschung ‘Vogelwarte Helgoland’, An der Vogelwarte 21, Wilhelmshaven, 26386, Germany

    Pavel Ktitorov

  3. Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics (IMGG), Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS), 1B, Nauki Street, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693002, Russia

    Pavel Ktitorov

  4. IMGG FEB RAS, 1B, Nauki str., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693002, Russia

    Pavel Ktitorov

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  1. Pavel Ktitorov
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Correspondence to Pavel Ktitorov.

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Communicated by W. Wiltschko

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Ktitorov, P., Tsvey, A. & Mukhin, A. The good and the bad stopover: behaviours of migrant reed warblers at two contrasting sites. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 1135–1143 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-0929-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-0929-9

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