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Influence of moonlight on nightjars’ vocal activity: a guideline for nightjar surveys in Europe

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Abstract

Strictly nocturnal or crepuscular habits on birds are restricted to a very limited number of species such as nightjars. Physiological skills of these species combined with ecological and behavioural adaptations provide them the ability to colonise a less competitive niche. Nightjars’ nocturnal ecological adaptations have been largely neglected on bird survey methods, which can bias the obtained results. Here, we studied the factors affecting vocal activity of two nightjar species, red-necked nightjar Caprimulgus ruficollis and European nightjar C. europaeus in a Mediterranean area of southern Portugal by modelling observed vocal activity of both species as a function of astronomic variables, particularly moon phase and day of the year. Red-necked nightjar vocal behaviour was positively associated with brighter moon phases and springtime, whereas European nightjar was only influenced by the season, being more active in the summer. This reveals the importance of light conditions on vocal activity of the former species. We suggest that specifically designed field surveys for these species should be preferentially conducted during brighter nights, when the lunar cycle is close to full moon. Furthermore, positive contacts with birds are maximized from late spring to early summer, at least for the red-necked nightjar.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially funded by the Instituto de Conservação da Natureza ICN (currently ICNF) of the Ministry of Environment Spatial Planning and Energy. L.R., M.P. and J.S. received support from the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science and the European Social Fund, through the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT), under POPH - QREN - Tipology 4.1, through the post-doc grants SFRH/BPD/93079/2013 (L.R.) and SFRH/BPD/97025/2013 (M.P.) and the PhD grant SFRH/BD/63566/2009 (J.S.). This study was also supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the project PTDC/BIA-BIC/2203/2012-FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028289. We appreciate all help provided by António Teixeira (ICNF), but also to private landowners in the study area. We also address our acknowledgement to Alfredina do Campo for their help concerning the data provided by the ‘Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa’. We are also grateful to Tiago Silva and Dinis Geraldes by their help in the fieldwork. Finally, the authors would like to thank to Ricardo Pita for his help concerning the data modelling and to John T. Rotenberry and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIBIO/InBIO -Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairãao, no 7, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal

    Luís Reino, Miguel Porto & Joana Santana

  2. Department of Behavioural Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznań, Poland

    Tomasz S. Osiejuk

Authors
  1. Luís Reino
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  2. Miguel Porto
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  3. Joana Santana
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  4. Tomasz S. Osiejuk
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Correspondence to Luís Reino.

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Reino, L., Porto, M., Santana, J. et al. Influence of moonlight on nightjars’ vocal activity: a guideline for nightjar surveys in Europe. Biologia 70, 968–973 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2015-0099

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2015-0099

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