Nutritional Strategies in Migratory Birds

  • Franz Bairlein
Conference paper

Abstract

Migration is a period of exceptionally high energy demands. To meet these demands during flight, energy is stored in the bird’s body. As fat is the prime fuel for migrating flights (Biebach 1996) many migratory birds therefore accumulate large amount of lipids in adipose tissue prior to and during migration at stopover. In small passerines, typically 73–82% of body mass gain is due to fat (Lindström and Piersma 1993) with maximum levels obtained by species crossing inhospitable areas such as sea and deserts with no feeding opportunities. The garden warbler, Sylvia borin, for example, a long-distance European migratory songbird wintering in tropical Africa, weighs about 16–18 g during the breeding and wintering seasons, but increases its body mass to up to 37 g just before leaving to cross the Sahara, in both autumn and spring (Bairlein 1991a), thus doubling fat-free body mass. Maximum fat deposition rates were found in small passerines with up to 10–15% change of lean body mass per day (Lindström 1991, this Vol.). Several migrant species also undergo protein accumulation prior to migration (Lindström and Piersma 1993; Klaassen and Biebach 1994), and protein is used during migration (Battley et al. 2000; Bauchinger and Biebach 2001). However, protein may not be used for energy purpose (Biebach 1996).

Keywords

Assimilation Efficiency Stopover Site Nutritional Strategy Diet Selection Body Mass Gain 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003

Authors and Affiliations

  • Franz Bairlein
    • 1
  1. 1.Institut für Vogelforschung Vogelwarte HelgolandWilhelmshavenGermany

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