Alternate non-stop migration strategies of pied flycatchers to cross the Sahara desert

Ouwehand, Janne; Both, Christiaan

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.1060

Cited by 47 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…oceans), continuous flight can be inferred. In addition, in songbirds, variability in daytime light levels has been used to estimate when the birds are flying (low variability) and when they are on land foraging in foliage (high variability) [14,15]. The interpretation of flight behaviour from geolocator data can be strengthened further by the addition of devices that detect water immersion [16] or flapping (accelerometry) [11,12,17].…”

Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sleeping on the wing

Rattenborg¹

2017

Interface Focus.

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Wakefulness enables animals to interface adaptively with the environment. Paradoxically, in insects to humans, the efficacy of wakefulness depends on daily sleep, a mysterious, usually quiescent state of reduced environmental awareness. However, several birds fly non-stop for days, weeks or months without landing, questioning whether and how they sleep. It is commonly assumed that such birds sleep with one cerebral hemisphere at a time (i.e. unihemispherically) and with only the corresponding eye closed, as observed in swimming dolphins. However, the discovery that birds on land can perform adaptively despite sleeping very little raised the possibility that birds forgo sleep during long flights. In the first study to measure the brain state of birds during long flights, great frigatebirds ( Fregata minor ) slept, but only during soaring and gliding flight. Although sleep was more unihemispheric in flight than on land, sleep also occurred with both brain hemispheres, indicating that having at least one hemisphere awake is not required to maintain the aerodynamic control of flight. Nonetheless, soaring frigatebirds appeared to use unihemispheric sleep to watch where they were going while circling in rising air currents. Despite being able to engage in all types of sleep in flight, the birds only slept for 0.7 h d −1 during flights lasting up to 10 days. By contrast, once back on land they slept 12.8 h d −1 . This suggests that the ecological demands for attention usually exceeded that afforded by sleeping unihemispherically. The ability to interface adaptively with the environment despite sleeping very little challenges commonly held views regarding sleep, and therefore serves as a powerful system for examining the functions of sleep and the consequences of its loss.

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Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[68]. Finally, several European songbirds engage in non-stop flights lasting 1-3 days that include crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert [14,15].…”

Section: Passeriformes (Songbirds and Swallows)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleeping on the wing

Rattenborg¹

2017

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“…The strategy may save energy and avoid the risk of heat stress in the hot desert environment 124 . Birds may, however, respond opportunistically to winds on migration across the Sahara resulting in extended flight periods in tailwind conditions [125][126][127] . Winds and food availability seem to be important for common swifts Apus apus crossing the Sahara 128 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

Åkesson

Ilieva

Karagicheva

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Please refer to our instructions for authors for full details on manuscript preparation. Please note that this template should act as a guide on content, but doesn't necessarily need to be followed for style and formatting. Our typesetters will set your manuscript into house style after acceptance.*Author for correspondence (Susanne.akesson@biol.lu.se). †Present address: Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden 2 Summary Migratory birds regularly perform impressive long-distance flights, which are timed relative to the anticipated environmental resources at destination areas that can be several thousand kilometres away. Timely migration requires diverse strategies and adaptations that involve an intricate interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to succeed. We examine the following challenges: departing in time for spring and autumn migration, in anticipation of future environmental conditions; using clocks on the move, for example for orientation, navigation, and stopover; strategies of adhering to, or adjusting the time program while fitting their activities into an annual cycle; and keeping pace with a world of rapidly changing environments. We then elaborate these themes by case studies representing long-distance migrating birds with different annual movement patterns and associated adaptations of their circannual programs. We discuss the current knowledge on how endogenous migration programs interact with external information across the annual cycle, how components of annual cycle programs encode topography and range expansions, and how fitness may be affected when mismatches between timing and environmental conditions occur. Lastly, we outline open questions and propose future research directions. Non-technical summaryMigratory birds perform impressive long-distance flights, timed relative to the availability of resources in different geographical areas. To manage this birds use different strategies including an interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to meet these challenges. We discuss how range expansions affect components of annual cycle programs, and how mismatches between timing and environment may affect reproductive success.3

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“…The large-scale North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index is a good summary of weather conditions over Europe that are important drivers of ecosystem functioning with high winter indices associated with early spring, including insect emergence (Forchhammer et al 2002, Sokolov & Kosarev 2003, Gordo 2007. As a proxy of the habitat quality in the wintering area of Pied Flycatchers in West Africa (Ouwehand & Both 2016), the wet season rainfall index was chosen. Positive index values indicate a higher precipitation than the long-term mean, and Tables 1 & 2. negative a lower precipitation.…”

Section: Barrett Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two were trans-Saharan migrants, the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and the Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus that are widespread as breeding birds in North Norway and spend the winter south of the Sahara in Africa. Norwegian Pied Flycatchers have been shown to winter mainly in West Africa north of the Gulf of Guinea whereas Willow Warblers from northern Scandinavia tend to winter further east in central, eastern and southern parts of Africa (Hedenström & Pettersson 1987, Bakken et al 2006, Ouwehand et al 2016, Thingstad et al 2015. As such, Pied Flycatchers have a more westerly migration route through NW Africa and the Iberian Peninsula than Willow Warblers that move northwards through the eastern Mediterranean and presumably the Balkans (Hedenström & Pettersson 1987) (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dependence of long-distance migration to North Norway on environmental conditions in the wintering area and en route

Barrett¹

2017

Ornis Norv.

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Abstract. The onset of bird migration may be under partial endogenous control whereas the timing of movement is flexible with weather and conditions faced by the moving birds being the ultimate cause of variability of arrival dates. This study shows that the early arrival dates of two of three long-distance passerine spring migrants (Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus and Chiffchaffs P. collybita) in North Norway were unrelated to climatic conditions at the start of their migration in Africa and en route through Europe until they reached Scandinavia. Although climate in W Africa may have affected departure dates, the timing of arrival of the first Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca seemed to be unrelated to conditions along the whole route, including the target area.

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Alternate non-stop migration strategies of pied flycatchers to cross the Sahara desert

Cited by 47 publications

References 16 publications

Sleeping on the wing

Sleeping on the wing

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

The dependence of long-distance migration to North Norway on environmental conditions in the wintering area and en route

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