Abstract
The scale of movements that passerine migrants perform during stopover is an important parameter of avian stopover ecology and behaviour. The scale of daytime movements has been estimated by captures of losing track of individuals that perform the longest movements. To estimate the upper limit of such daytime movements, I analysed recaptures of six nocturnal passerine migrant species between two trapping sites on the Courish Spit in the Eastern Baltic located 10.7 km apart. The proportion of birds that covered this distance during the daytime varied between species and seasons, but was generally very low, varying between 0 and 0.140%. Ten kilometres appears to be at the very upper limit of the distance covered by nocturnal migrants during their daytime movements, with the bulk of birds remaining within a much smaller area. No evidence supports the view that, in the daytime, nocturnal migrants significantly prefer to move in the migratory direction, even on the Courish Spit which runs along the migratory route of most passerine migrants in the area.
Zusammenfassung
Das Ausmaß der Ortsveränderungen, die ziehende Singvögel auf Stopovers zeigen, ist ein wichtiger Parameter in der Rastplatzökologie und dem Verhalten von Zugvögeln. Der Umfang solcher Bewegungen während des Tages ist bislang anhand von Fängen und Wiederfängen an ein und demselben Ort geschätzt worden, was zu ernsthaften Unterschätzungen geführt haben mag. Diese Gefahr besteht ebenso bei der Verfolgung von Tieren durch Sender, weil bei beiden Methoden die Wahrscheinlichkeit recht hoch ist, daß man diejenigen Individuen, die sich über die längsten Distanzen bewegen, bei der Nachverfolgung verliert. Um die Obergrenze solcher Ortsveränderungen untertags abzuschätzen, analysierte ich die Wiederfänge von sechs nächtlich ziehenden Singvogelarten zwischen zwei 10,7 km voneinander entfernten Fangstellen auf der Kurischen Nehrung, Baltikum. Der Anteil an Individuen, die diese Strecke untertags zurücklegten, variierte von Art zu Art und von Jahreszeit zu Jahreszeit, war aber generell sehr gering und bewegte sich zwischen 0 und 0,140%. Zehn Kilometer scheinen die äußerste Entfernung zu sein, die Nacht-Zieher bei ihren Ortsveränderungen untertags zurücklegen, wobei sich der größte Teil der Vögel innerhalb wesentlich engerer Grenzen bewegt. Es gibt keine Hinweise darauf, daß Nacht-Zieher bei ihren Ortsveränderungen untertags eine klare Tendenz hätten, sich in Zugrichtung zu bewegen, nicht einmal auf der Kurischen Nehrung, die genau in Zugrichtung der meisten Singvögel der Gegend verläuft.
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Acknowledgments
The author is most grateful to all persons, too numerous to name, who participated in the trapping projects run by the Biological Station Rybachy in Rybachy and Fringilla. All ringing operations and handling protocols complied with the current laws of Russian Federation. The author is also grateful to Heiko Schmaljohann and two anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments helped to improve an earlier draft. At the stage of data analysis, this study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant no. 09-04-00208a).
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Communicated by F. Bairlein.
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Chernetsov, N. Daytime movements of nocturnal migrants at stopover between two nearby capture sites. J Ornithol 152, 1007–1011 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0690-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0690-5