Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Importance of Reedbeds and Riparian Areas for Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti throughout its Annual Cycle

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Wetlands Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study describes the importance of reedbed and riparian habitats for the annual cycle of Cetti’s warbler Cettia cetti. We examined the seasonal variation in population structure and body condition using a long-term data set (11 years) from bird ringing. Because seasonal variations in the differential use of each wetland type should be influenced by food resources and shelter conditions for roosting, a short term study (1 year) was performed to assess the diet, trophic niche and health condition of Cetti’s warbler, and to examine differences in the abundance of food resources and temperature between the two habitats. Results revealed that reedbeds are very important for Cetti’s warbler, supporting large numbers of (mainly) juvenile females during the late summer and autumn periods. Fecal analysis showed that during late summer predator insects (mostly Coleoptera) were more important for Cetti’s warblers on the reedbed, while Phytophagous insects (Hemiptera) were more important for Cetti’s warblers on the riparian habitat. Stable isotope mixing models from blood and feathers samples corroborated these results and revealed the opportunistic foraging behaviour of Cetti’s warbler. The variation on the δ13C values of juvenile secondary feathers was higher for the reedbed, indicating a wider provenance for birds that move into the reedbed in late summer/early autumn. The δ13C values for the riparian area had a smaller variation suggesting that these birds were less dispersive. Overall, the higher abundance of higher trophic level food resources, and higher minimum temperatures for roosting on the reedbed, makes this habitat particularly attractive for Cetti’s warbler after the breeding season.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Balança G, Schaub M (2005) Post-breeding migration ecology of Reed Acrocephalus scirpaceus. Moustached A. melanopogon And Cetti’s warblers Cettia cetti at a Mediterranean stopover site. Ardea 93:245–257

  • Barrientos JA (2004) Curso Práctico de Entomología. Asociación spañola de Entomología, CIBIO-Centro Iberoamericano de Biodiversidad & Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (in Spanish)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bearhop S, Waldron S, Votier SC, Furness RW (2002) Factors that influence assimilation rates and fractionation of nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes in avian blood and feathers. Physiol Biochem Zool 75:451–458

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bearhop S, Adams CE, Waldron S, Fuller RA, MacLeod H (2004) Determining trophic niche width: a novel approach using stable isotope analysis. J Anim Ecol 73(5):1007–1012

  • Bibby CJ (1982) Polygyny and breeding ecology of Cetti’s warbler Cettia cetti. Ibis 124:288–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bibby CJ, Green R (1983) Food and fattening of migrating Warblers in some French marshlands. Ringing Migration 4:175–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bibby CJ, Lunn J (1982) Conservation of reed beds and their avifauna in England and Wales. Biol Conserv 23:167–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bibby CJ, Thomas DK (1984) Sexual dimorphism in size, moult and movements of cetti’ s warbler Cettia cetti. Bird Study 31:28–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolger DT, Scott TA, Rotenberry JT (2001) Use of corridor-like landscape structures by bird and small mammal species. Biol Conserv 102:213–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonham PF, Robertson JCM (1975) The spread of Cetti’s warbler in north-west Europe. British Birds 68:393–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Brickle NW, Harper DGC (1999) Diet of nestling Corn Buntings Miliaria calandra in southern England examined by compositional analysis of faeces. Bird study 46:319–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown AF, Atkinson PW (1996) Habitat associations of coastal wintering passerines. Bird Study 43:188–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burger JC, Patten MA, Rotenberry JT, Redak RA (1999) Foraging ecology of the California gnatcatcher deduced from fecal samples. Oecologia 120:304–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caut S, Angulo E, Courchamp F (2009) Variation in discrimination factors (Δ15N and Δ13C): The effect of diet isotopic values and applications for diet reconstruction. J Appl Ecol 46:443–453

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cherel Y, Hobson KA (2005) Stable isotopes, beaks and predators: a new tool to study the trophic ecology of cephalopods, including giant and colossal squids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 272:1601–1607

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cherel Y, Hobson KA, Guinet C, Vanpe C (2007) Stable isotopes document seasonal changes in trophic niches and winter foraging individual specialization in diving predators from the Southern Ocean. Journal of Animal Ecology 76:826–836

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper RJ, Whitmore RC (1990) Arthropod sampling methods in ornithology. Avian Biology 13:29–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies NB (1976) Food, Flocking and Territorial Behaviour of the Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii Gould) in Winter. Journal of Animal Ecology 45(1):235–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ, Epstein S (1978) Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 42:495–506

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Facchinelli L, Valerio L, Pombi M, Reiter P, Constantini C, Della Torre A (2007) Development of a novel sticky trap for container-breeding mosquitoes and evaluation of its sampling properties to monitor urban populations of Aedes albopictus. Med Vet Entomol 21:183–95

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson-Lees I (1964) Studies of less familiar birds. Cetti’ s Warbler. British Birds 57:357–359

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey WG (1977) Cetti’ s Warblers in east Kent in 1975. British Birds 70:96–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson KA (1999) Tracing origins and migration of wildlife using stable isotopes: a review. Oecologia 120:314–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson KA, Clark RG (1992) Assessing Avian Diets Using Stable Isotopes : Turnover of 13C in Tissues. Condor 94:181–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson KA, Piatt JFJ, Pitocchelli J (1994) Using stable isotopes to determine seabird trophic relationships. Journal of Animal Ecology 63:786–798

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inger R, Bearhop S (2008) Applications of stable isotope analyses to avian ecology. Ibis 150:447–461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson AL, Inger R, Parnell AC, Bearhop S (2011) Comparing isotopic niche widths among and within communities: SIBER - Stable Isotope Bayesian Ellipses in R. Journal of Animal Ecology 80:595–602

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson CG (1950) The comparison of suction trap, sticky trap and tow-net for the quantitive sampling of small airborne insects. Ann Appl Biol 37(2): 268–285

  • Kelly JF (2000) Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the study of avian and mammalian trophic ecology. Can J Zool 78:1–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Sueur F (1980) Some Cetti ’ s Warbler breeding observations. Bird Study 27:249–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machtans CS, Villard M, Hannon S (1996) Use of Riparian Buffer Strips as Movement Corridors by Forest Birds. Conserv Biol 10:1366–1379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-Vilalta J, Bertolero A, Bigas D, Paquet JY, Martínez-Vilalta A (2002) Habitat selection of passerine birds nesting in the Ebro Delta reedbeds (NE Spain): management implications. Wetlands 22:318–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melbourne BA (1999) Bias in the effect of habitat structure on pitfall traps: An experimental evaluation. Aust J Ecol 24 (3): 228–239

  • Molina J, Josd AH, Camacho I (1998) Diet of Cetti’s warblers Cettia cetti (Temmink, 1820) in a locality os Southern Spain. Ardeola 45:217–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Mönkkönen M, Reunanen P (1999) On critical thresholds in landscape connectivity: a management perspective. Oikos 84:302–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monticelli D, Araújo PM, Hines JE, Tenreiro PQ, da Silva LP, Ramos JA (2014) Assessing the role of body mass and sex on apparent adult survival in polygynous passerines: a case study of Cetti’s warblers in Central Portugal. J Avian Biol 45:75–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neto JM (2003) Annual dynamics of reddbed passerines in Ria de Aveiro, Portugal, assessed by standardized mist-netting. Airo 13:17–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Newsome SD, Yeakel JD, Wheatley PV, Tinker MT (2012) Tools for quantifying isotopic niche space and dietary variation at the individual and population level. J Mammal 93(2):329–341

  • Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Kindt R, Legendre P, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MHM, Oksanen MJ (2013) Package ‘vegan’. Community ecology package, version, 2(9)

  • Paradis E, Baillie SR, Sutherland WJ, Gregory RD (1998) Patterns of natal and breeding dispersal in birds. Journal of Animal Ecology 67:518–536

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parnell AC, Inger R, Bearhop S, Jackson AL (2010) Source partitioning using stable isotopes: Coping with too much variation. PLoS One 5:e9672

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips DL, Inger R, Bearhop S, Jackson AL, Moore JW, Parnell AC, Semmens BX, Ward EJ (2014) Best practices for use of stable isotope mixing models in food-web studies. Can J Zool 92:823–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickett STA, Thompson JN (1978) Patch dynamics and the design of nature reserves. Biol Conserv 13:27–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Post DM (2002) Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: Models, methods, and assumptions. Ecology 83:703–718

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poulin B, Lefebvre G, Mauchamp A (2002) Habitat requirements of passerines and reedbed management in southern France. Biol Conserv 107:315–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2013) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. The R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org/. Accessed 19 Jun 2013

  • Ralph PC, Nagata PS, Ralph CJ (1985) Analysis of droppings to describe diets of small birds. Journal of Field Ornithology 56:165–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinertsen RE (1983) Nocturnal hypothermia and its energetic significance for small birds living in the arctic and subarctic regions. A review. Polar Res 1:269–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinertsen RE, Haftorn S (1986) Different metabolic strategies of northern birds for nocturnal survival. Journal of Comparative Psychology B 156:655–663

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers LE, Hinds WT, Buschbom RL (1976) A general weight vs. length relationship for insects. Ann Entomol Soc Am 69:387–389

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Root RB (1973) Organization of a Plant-Arthropod Association in simple and diverse habitats: the Fauna of collards (Brassica oleracea). Ecol Monogr 43:95–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research. Freeman. New York 3:887

    Google Scholar 

  • Svensson E, Hedenstrom A (1999) A phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of moult strategies in Western Palearctic warblers (Aves Sylviidae). Bot J Linn Soc 67:263–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teixeira AM (1980) Sucessão Anual da Avifauna num Caniçal (Phragmites communisTrin.) do Estuário do Sado. Publicações Centro de Estudos de Migração e Protecção das Aves/Secretaria de Estado do Ambiente, Lisboa.

  • Wunder MB, Kester CL, Knopf FL, Rye RO (2005) A test of geographic assignment using isotope tracers in feathers of known origin. Oecologia 144:607–617

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Smith GM (2007) Analysing Ecological Data. Springre, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

PMA acknowledges the support given by ‘Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’ (Portugal, SFRH / BD / 69238 / 2010). We thank ‘Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas’ (ICNF) for help in data collection. This paper benefited from the comments of Ruben Heleno, and Filipe Ceia. All work was approved by the relevant authorities (ICNF). This study benefited from the strategic program of MARE, financed by FCT (MARE - UID/MAR/04292/2013)”.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Pedro M. Araújo, Pedro B. Lopes, Luís P. da Silva & Jaime A. Ramos

  2. CEF – Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Luís P. da Silva

Authors
  1. Pedro M. Araújo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pedro B. Lopes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luís P. da Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jaime A. Ramos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pedro M. Araújo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Araújo, P.M., Lopes, P.B., da Silva, L.P. et al. The Importance of Reedbeds and Riparian Areas for Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti throughout its Annual Cycle. Wetlands 36, 875–887 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0799-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0799-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation