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Orientation in captive migratory and sedentary Australian silvereyes Zosterops lateralis (Zosteropidae)

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Abstract

The orientation of two closely related subspecies of Australian silvereye Zosterops lateralis was studied in captivity over 14 months. Migratory silvereyes Z. lateralis lateralis showed significant directional preferences during the spring and autumn migration periods and also displayed orientated behaviour during the breeding period. In contrast, the non-migratory subspecies Z. lateralis familiaris did not display any significant directional preferences at any time. This is the first time that the orientation behaviour of a migratory and non-migratory subspecies has been compared over the duration of an annual cycle, both during and outside the migratory periods. The results suggest that migratory silvereyes possess an endogenous program determining the timing and direction of autumn and spring migration and that this program is unique to the migratory subspecies. This is also the first comparison of this nature on southern hemisphere birds and demonstrates that the migratory behaviour of southern hemisphere migrants may be more similar to that of northern hemisphere migrants than previously thought.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by an ARC Large grant to U.M. We thank Alan Leishman, Kathleen McCloskey, Alan Fletcher, Francoise Matter, Sirena Wan, Audrey Thomson, Esther Rosner and Boris Kosnowski for their support in catching and maintaining the birds in captivity. We also thank the technical, workshop and the security staff from the UTS Gore Hill and Kuring-gai Campus for their assistance. Peter Berthold, one anonymous reviewer and Wolfgang Wiltschko provided helpful comments to earlier versions of this paper. The experiments comply with the current laws of Australia.

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  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia

    Julie R. Funnell & Ursula Munro

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  1. Julie R. Funnell
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  2. Ursula Munro
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Correspondence to Ursula Munro.

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Communicated by W. Wiltschko

Submitted to Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology: 23 Jan 2006.

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Funnell, J.R., Munro, U. Orientation in captive migratory and sedentary Australian silvereyes Zosterops lateralis (Zosteropidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 337–345 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0262-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0262-5

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