How Important Are Bird Colonies as Information Centers?

Bayer, Range D.

doi:10.2307/4086019

Cited by 58 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Evidence of Information Center Hypothesis-type information exchange at seabird colonies remains elusive (Bayer 1982, Mock et al 1988). The information provided by returning flocks of birds, however, was consistent with the direction of the main capelin hot spots and, thus, could act as ''insurance'' when food conditions change (Ward and Zahavi 1973, Greene 1987, Summers and Feare 1995, Zahavi 1995, Burger 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Search Strategies of a Pursuit-Diving Marine Bird and the Persistence of Prey Patches

Davoren

Montevecchi

Anderson

2003

Ecological Monographs

134

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We explored foraging strategies used by marine animals to search for prey by examining the relative importance of information exchange and memory in a cold ocean environment from 1998 to 2000. Recent technological advances have increased our knowledge of the foraging patterns of marine predators, but few of these studies have concurrently measured prey distribution and behavior. We quantified the arrival and departure behavior of a pursuit-diving, colonial seabird, the Common Murre, Uria aalge, at two colonies on the eastern Newfoundland Shelf through observational techniques. We also measured the distribution, abundance, and behavior of the capelin, Mallotus villosus, the main prey species of murres, within foraging ranges of each colony, using hydroacoustic, vessel-based techniques. Return and departure flight directions of murres did not match at either colony during the same period. This indicated that murres departing colonies did not use information on prey distributions outside of visual range of the colony provided by the flight paths of returning flocks of birds to the colony carrying fish. High-abundance aggregations of capelin were reliably found within specific 2.25-km areas (''hot spots'') for up to two weeks within the foraging ranges of murres from both colonies (ϳ100 km). This circumstance suggests that murres could use memory to locate hot spots on the coarse scale (1-100 km) of foraging ranges from both colonies. Specific commuting routes (regular flight paths) of murres toward and away from hot spots were obvious at sea, and feeding murres consistently marked the location of capelin schools within hot spots. These distributions provided excellent conditions for murres to locate capelin schools on both coarse and fine (1-1000 m) scales by cueing to the activities of conspecifics, known as local enhancement. While central-place foraging from breeding colonies, murres likely use a mixture of memory and local enhancement to locate prey, depending on the spatial and temporal resolution of search and current prey conditions. Uncovering such behavioral mechanisms responsible for predator-prey interactions increases our understanding of linkages among trophic levels and, ultimately, ecosystem dynamics.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is little support for ICH-type mechanisms for location of food patches by birds (e.g., Bayer 1982, Mock et al 1988. Most information exchange at colonies and roosts can be instead attributed to the use of local enhancement (Andersson et al 1981, Evans 1983, Flemming 1990, Poysa 1992, Smith 1995, Marzluff et al 1996, Buckley 1996.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Search Strategies of a Pursuit-Diving Marine Bird and the Persistence of Prey Patches

Davoren

Montevecchi

Anderson

2003

Ecological Monographs

134

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, in the absence of habitat limitation, group living must improve an individual's foraging efficiency, risk of predation, or care of young to offset these costs (Alexander 1974) . Transfer of information about the location or quality of food patches (Ward & Zahavi 1973) is one frequently suggested yet rarely demonstrated (Bayer 1982 ;Weatherhead 1987 ;Mock et al . 1988 ;Richner & Marclay 1991) advantage to forming a communal roost or colony .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Information transfer at evening bat colonies

1992

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Four lines of evidence indicate that evening bats, Nycticeius humeralis, at nursery colonies in northern Missouri transfer information by following each other to feeding and roosting sites . (1) Daily estimates of insect density from five automated suction traps showed that common prey in evening bat faecal samples, small beetles and flies, occur in rich patches that persist for several days . Bats apparently respond to prey density and variability because these variables independently predict the number of trips and capture success of foraging bats . (2) Videotape records of the time and weight of bats arriving and departing from a colony indicated that adult females leave within 10 s of each other on second and subsequent foraging trips more often than expected within a night . These records also revealed that bats alternate between apparent following and leading over a summer, that unsuccessful foragers follow previously successful foragers within a night, and that the foraging success of putative followers is greater than that of unsuccessful bats which depart solitarily. (3) Radio-tagged bats often returned to foraging sites both within a night and on successive nights . Furthermore, three of 12 radio-tagged bats flew closer to another radio-tagged bat throughout a night than expected if bats foraged independently . (4) Two field experiments in which bats were excluded from their roosts for one night demonstrated that newly volant bats follow adult females to alternate roosts . The possibility that evening bats acquire information passively by monitoring echolocation signals or actively by vocal advertisement is discussed .

show abstract

“…Good evidence of bird colonies serving as information centres only concerns a few passerines (Brown, 1986). This theory is not yet really proven in wading birds (Bayer, 1982;Waltz, 1982;Marion, 1989). Data on exact knowledge of the pattern of resource exploitation by herons are lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Important Are Bird Colonies as Information Centers?

Cited by 58 publications

References 51 publications

Search Strategies of a Pursuit-Diving Marine Bird and the Persistence of Prey Patches

Search Strategies of a Pursuit-Diving Marine Bird and the Persistence of Prey Patches

Information transfer at evening bat colonies

Colonial nesting behaviour in Indian Pond Heron (Ardeola grayii grayii) of Bangladesh

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About