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Influence of fuel load and weather on timing of nocturnal spring migratory departures in European robins, Erithacus rubecula

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Abstract

Time of departure and landing of nocturnal migrants are of great importance for understanding migratory strategy used by birds. It allows us to estimate flying time and hence the distance that migrants cover during a single night. In this paper, I studied the temporal schedule of nocturnal departures of European robins during spring migration. The study was done on the Courish Spit on the Baltic Sea in 1998–2003 by retrapping 51 ringed birds in high mist nets during nocturnal migratory departure. Take-offs of individual birds occurred between the first and tenth hour after sunset (median 176 min after sunset). Departure time was not related to fuel stores at arrival and departure, stopover duration and progress of the season. The results suggest that one reason for temporal variation in take-off time was differential response of European robins with high and low motivation to depart to such triggers as air pressure and its trend. If these parameters reach a certain minimum threshold shortly before sunset, robins with a high migratory motivation take off in the beginning of the night. When air pressure or its trend reaches a maximum, it may trigger to take off later during the night birds with lower initial motivation for departure, including those that have low refuelling efficiency. In regulation of timing of take-offs of robins, an important role is also played by their individual endogenous circadian rhythm of activity which is related to the environment in a complex way.

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Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to my colleagues Arseny Tsvey for his assistance in the field and Nikita Chernetsov for correcting the English and many valuable remarks. I am indebted to many colleagues and students who caught birds at daytime and helped to install the high nets. I thank two anonymous reviewers who helped me greatly improve the manuscript. The author acknowledges the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) for providing wind balloon data. This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 04-04-49161). The methods used in this study comply with the laws of the Russian Federation.

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  1. Biological Station Rybachy, Zoological Institute, Rybachy, 238535, Kaliningrad Region, Russia

    Victor N. Bulyuk

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  1. Victor N. Bulyuk
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Correspondence to Victor N. Bulyuk.

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Communicated by W. Wiltschko

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Bulyuk, V.N. Influence of fuel load and weather on timing of nocturnal spring migratory departures in European robins, Erithacus rubecula . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 385–395 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1284-1

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