Annual 10-Month Aerial Life Phase in the Common Swift Apus apus

Hedenström, Anders; Norevik, Gabriel; Warfvinge, Kajsa; Andersson, Arne; Bäckman, Johan; Åkesson, Susanne

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.014

Cited by 98 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…Assuming that the birds never spent the night horizontal on land, these periods of low activity might reflect an increase in the time spent soaring and gliding, perhaps related to seasonal changes in atmospheric conditions. In a similar study, Hedenströ m et al [12] found that common swifts fly throughout more than 99% of the non-breeding period, with some individuals remaining in flight for up to 300 days. Interestingly, during the rare periods when the birds landed, they roosted vertically or horizontally.…”

Section: Apodiformes (Swifts and Hummingbirds) 221 Swiftsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Satellite and GPS tags are shrinking in size and weight making it possible to track smaller species with this technology [9]. Accelerometers are providing insight into the flight behaviour of both large [8,10] and small birds [11,12]. Geolocators, small devices that derive a bird's location on the globe by detecting changes in the timing of sunrise and sunset, are detecting long-distance flights in birds as small as 12 g [13].…”

Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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]. In this section, I review the evidence for continuous flight (more than 24 h) in birds.…”

Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sleeping on the wing

Rattenborg¹

2017

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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: Apodiformes (Swifts and Hummingbirds) 221 Swiftsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Non-stop Fliersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sleeping on the wing

Rattenborg¹

2017

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“…Logging of accelerometer data has been used for three main purposes in studies of animal behaviour—(1) for classifying behaviour and mode of locomotion and flight, (2) for estimating energy demands (these two aspects have been reviewed by Brown et al 2013) and, most recently, (3) for recording actograms of individuals in order to analyse daily and annual activity and flight patterns in bird migration. The latter has recently been made possible for small migratory birds (Liechti et al 2013; Bäckman et al 2016; Hedenström et al 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actogram analysis of free-flying migratory birds: new perspectives based on acceleration logging

et al. 2017

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The use of accelerometers has become an important part of biologging techniques for large-sized birds with accelerometer data providing information about flight mode, wing-beat pattern, behaviour and energy expenditure. Such data show that birds using much energy-saving soaring/gliding flight like frigatebirds and swifts can stay airborne without landing for several months. Successful accelerometer studies have recently been conducted also for free-flying small songbirds during their entire annual cycle. Here we review the principles and possibilities for accelerometer studies in bird migration. We use the first annual actograms (for red-backed shrike Lanius collurio) to explore new analyses and insights that become possible with accelerometer data. Actogram data allow precise estimates of numbers of flights, flight durations as well as departure/landing times during the annual cycle. Annual and diurnal rhythms of migratory flights, as well as prolonged nocturnal flights across desert barriers are illustrated. The shifting balance between flight, rest and different intensities of activity throughout the year as revealed by actogram data can be used to analyse exertion levels during different phases of the life cycle. Accelerometer recording of the annual activity patterns of individual birds will open up a new dimension in bird migration research.

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“…Tracking of individuals can detail the timing of specific behaviours (e.g. nocturnal roosting of swifts exclusively during the breeding season [91]) and physiology (e.g. sleep [92]).…”

Section: (B) Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Two sides of a coin: ecological and chronobiological perspectives of timing in the wild

Helm

Visser

Schwartz

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

140

199

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Most processes within organisms, and most interactions between organisms and their environment, have distinct time profiles. The temporal coordination of such processes is crucial across levels of biological organization, but disciplines differ widely in their approaches to study timing. Such differences are accentuated between ecologists, who are centrally concerned with a holistic view of an organism in relation to its external environment, and chronobiologists, who emphasize internal timekeeping within an organism and the mechanisms of its adjustment to the environment. We argue that ecological and chronobiological perspectives are complementary, and that studies at the intersection will enable both fields to jointly overcome obstacles that currently hinder progress. However, to achieve this integration, we first have to cross some conceptual barriers, clarifying prohibitively inaccessible terminologies. We critically assess main assumptions and concepts in either field, as well as their common interests. Both approaches intersect in their need to understand the extent and regulation of temporal plasticity, and in the concept of 'chronotype', i.e. the characteristic temporal properties of individuals which are the targets of natural and sexual selection. We then highlight promising developments, point out open questions, acknowledge difficulties and propose directions for further integration of ecological and chronobiological perspectives through Wild Clock research.

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Annual 10-Month Aerial Life Phase in the Common Swift Apus apus

Cited by 98 publications

References 19 publications

Sleeping on the wing

Sleeping on the wing

Actogram analysis of free-flying migratory birds: new perspectives based on acceleration logging

Two sides of a coin: ecological and chronobiological perspectives of timing in the wild

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