Moonlight drives nocturnal vertical flight dynamics in black swifts

Hedenström, Anders; Sparks, R. A.; Norevik, Gabriel; Woolley, Colin; Levandoski, Greg; Åkesson, Susanne

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.006

Cited by 9 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Species might show a preference for brighter or darker nights within the moon cycle, and this has already been studied broadly, usually using moon phase as a proxy in various groups of nocturnal mammals, particularly bats, rodents and primates (Saldaña-Vázquez and Munguía-Rosas 2013; Prugh and Golden 2014). It has also been investigated in birds in the context of night singing (Dickerson et al 2020), hunting behaviour (San-Jose et al 2019) and flight patterns (Hedenström et al 2022).…”

Section: Ecological Implications and Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biologically meaningful moonlight measures and their application in ecological research

Śmielak

2023

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Light availability is one of the key drivers of animal activity, and moonlight is the brightest source of natural light at night. Moon phase is commonly used but, while convenient, it can be a poor proxy for lunar illumination on the ground. While the moon phase remains effectively constant within a night, actual moonlight intensity is affected by multiple factors such as disc brightness, position of the moon, distance to the moon, angle of incidence, and cloud cover. A moonlight illumination model is presented for any given time and location, which is significantly better at predicting lunar illumination than moon phase. The model explains up to 92.2% of the variation in illumination levels with a residual standard error of 1.4%, compared to 60% explained by moon phase with a residual standard error of 22.6%. Importantly, the model not only predicts changes in mean illumination between nights but also within each night, providing greater temporal resolution of illumination estimates. An R package moonlit facilitating moonlight illumination modelling is also presented. Using a case study, it is shown that modelled moonlight intensity can be a better predictor of animal activity than moon phase. More importantly, complex patterns of activity are shown where animals focus their activity around certain illumination levels. This relationship could not be identified using moon phase alone. The model can be universally applied to a wide range of ecological and behavioural research, including existing datasets, allowing a better understanding of lunar illumination as an ecological resource. Significance statement Moon phase is often used to represent lunar illumination as an environmental niche, but it is a poor proxy for actual moonlight intensity on the ground. A model is therefore proposed to estimate lunar illumination for any given place and time. The model is shown to provide a significantly better prediction of empirically measured lunar illumination than moon phase. Importantly, it also has much higher temporal resolutions, allowing to not only detect selectiveness for light levels between nights but also within each night, which is not achievable with moon phase alone. This offers unprecedented opportunities to study complex activity patterns of nocturnal species using any time-stamped data (GPS trackers, camera traps, song meters, etc.). It can also be applied to historical datasets, as well as facilitate future research planning in a wide range of ecological and behavioural studies.

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Section: Ecological Implications and Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biologically meaningful moonlight measures and their application in ecological research

Śmielak

2023

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…A number of cathemeral mammal species are known, but there are few cathemeral bird species, the Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) being one example (Poulin et al 2020). Further illustration of cathemerality in the Black Swift includes non-stop migratory flights (Beason et al 2012) and continuous flight without landing to roost while in the wintering areas in Brazil (Hedenström et al 2022).…”

Section: Adult Daily Time Budgetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hedenström, personal communication). Considering the Common Swift may stay airborne for up to ten months (Hedenström et al 2016) and the Black Swift for eight months (Hedenström et al 2022), it seems likely they have to preen feathers in flight. The nestling started preening at 10 days of age.…”

Section: Adult Preeningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A surveillance camera reveals season-long nesting activities and behaviors at a nest of the Northern Black Swift (Cypseloides niger borealis)

Gunn¹

2022

JFO

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“…Such exclusion of clouds could be problematic as the behavior of birds, bats, and insects can be driven by cloud cover (Cryan & Brown, 2007 ; Weisshaupt et al, 2022 ; Yela & Holyoak, 1997 ), and due to the exclusion of moonlight, new Moon phases are likely to be overrepresented in these datasets. This overrepresentation could be problematic because the behavior of insects, birds, and bats can also be driven by the Moon's phase or its mere presence or absence (El Jundi et al, 2015 ; Foster et al, 2021 ; Hedenström et al, 2022 ; Lang et al, 2006 ; Norevik et al, 2019 ; Storms et al, 2022 ; Warrant & Dacke, 2011 ). In particular, there is evidence that the lunar cycle forces the migratory activity of nocturnal birds (Norevik et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: From Surface To Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

X,Y, and Z: A bird's eye view on light pollution

Degen

Kollath

Degen

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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The global increase in light pollution is being viewed with growing concern, as it has been reported to have negative effects ranging from the individual to the ecosystem level. Unlike movement on the ground, flying and swimming allows vertical motion. Here, we demonstrate that flight altitude change is crucial to the perception and susceptibility of artificial light at night of air‐borne organisms. Because air‐borne species can propagate through the airspace and easily across ecotones, effects might not be small‐scale. Therefore, we propose including airspace as a vital habitat in the concept of ecological light pollution. The interplay between flight altitude and the effects of light pollution may not only be crucial for understanding flying species but may also provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of responses to artificial light at night in general.

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Moonlight drives nocturnal vertical flight dynamics in black swifts

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Biologically meaningful moonlight measures and their application in ecological research

Biologically meaningful moonlight measures and their application in ecological research

A surveillance camera reveals season-long nesting activities and behaviors at a nest of the Northern Black Swift (Cypseloides niger borealis)

X,Y, and Z: A bird's eye view on light pollution

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