Abstract
On the Balkan Peninsula, migratory Spanish Sparrows breed sympatrically with resident House Sparrows. While the two species share many biological and ecological traits, migratory patterns and adaptions to migratory lifestyle of the Spanish Sparrow are unknown. We tracked a Spanish Sparrow across its 1800 km long migration from Bulgaria to the nonbreeding sites in the Nile Delta. Stopovers were situated in western Turkey, before and after the 12 h-nonstop flights across the Mediterranean Sea. We show similar wing morphology in Spanish and House Sparrows indicating little adaptation to migration. However, Spanish Sparrows moult primaries earlier and faster allowing for timely migratory departure.
Zusammenfassung
Zug, Flügelmorphometrie und Flügelmauser von Weiden- und Haussperlingen der östlichen Balkan-Halbinsel
Auf der Balkanhalbinsel brüten Weidensperlinge sympatrisch mit residenten Haussperlingen. Beide Arten teilen viele biologische und ökologische Merkmale; Zugmuster und Anpassungen an das Zugverhalten sind für den Weidensperling jedoch noch weitgehend unbekannt. Wir beschreiben hier die 1800 km lange Wanderung eines Weidensperlings von Bulgarien bis in das ägyptische Winterquartier im Nildelta. Der Vogel rastete im Herbst und im Frühling in der Westtürkei, vor bzw. nach seinem 12-stündigen Nonstop-Flug über das Mittelmeer. Weidensperlinge der Balkanhalbinsel hatten die gleiche Flügelmorphologie wie Haussperlinge und zeigten somit eine geringe Anpassung an den Zug. Sie mauserten ihre Flügelfedern jedoch zeitiger und schneller als die lokalen Haussperlinge und können somit zeitig im Herbst abwandern.
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Acknowledgements
The study has been supported by the DO-G to SH (14.12.2009), the Swiss Federal Office for Environment (UTF 254.08.08) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF31003A_160265). Field work had been carried out under permission 243/01.03.2010 (Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters). This study is Report No. 64 of the Biological Experimental Station ‘Kalimok’.
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DD, MI did field work for geolocator section, TE, SP, SH captured and DD, MI, SP measured birds for the moult section, PZ generated many ideas for the migration study, provided permissions and supported field work, MB and SH analysed data and wrote the manuscript.
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Communicated by N. Chernetsov.
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Hahn, S., Dimitrov, D., Emmenegger, T. et al. Migration, wing morphometry and wing moult in Spanish and House Sparrows from the eastern Balkan Peninsula. J Ornithol 160, 271–274 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-018-1597-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-018-1597-1