Movement patterns and habitat use during incubation and chick-rearing of Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea diomedea) (Aves: Vertebrata) from Central Mediterranean: influence of seascape and breeding stage

A new algorithm for the identification of dives reveals the foraging ecology of a shallow-diving seabird using accelerometer data

“…During incubation, parents performed only long foraging trips for self-provisioning, as observed in a previous study in the same colony (Cecere et al 2013). In this phase, birds forage for themselves and they can exploit highly productive areas far away from the colony (Paiva et al 2010a).…”

“…We expect that shearwaters increase their nocturnal foraging activity during the most energetic demanding phase (e.g., early chick-rearing). According to previous studies, we do not expect differences in foraging behaviour between sexes (Navarro et al 2009, Ramos et al 2009Cecere et al 2013). …”

“…Scopoli's shearwaters exploit a wide range of prey (Grémillet et al 2014) and forage close to the sea surface (Zotier et al 1999). During incubation, parents perform mainly long trips lasting several days (Cecere et al 2013). During chick-rearing, on the other hand, adults perform short trips for chick-feeding and longer trips for selfprovisioning (Congdon et al 2005;Magalhães et al 2008).…”

Movement Patterns and Habitat Selection of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) Breeding at Aride Island, Seychelles

“…This behavior allows birds to balance the need of regularly visiting the colony on the one hand, with accessing better foraging areas farther from the colony on the other hand. Normally, during the early chick-rearing period, chicks need to be fed often and regularly, forcing breeders to make short trips and, in some cases, to exploit less profitable areas than those exploited with longer trips (see Cecere et al 2013). Congdon et al (2005) have described a dual foraging strategy for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters breeding on Heron Island, Australia, with foraging adults performing short-trip cycles of multiple 1-to 4-day trips followed by a single long trip of approximately 8 days.…”

“…Catry et al (2009) were the first to document the movements of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters using geo-locator loggers (GLS) during late chick-rearing, non-breeding and pre-breeding periods. This study focuses on the same population, breeding at Aride Island Nature Reserve, Seychelles, but during early chick-rearing, a critical period during which the chicks of shearwater species generally need to be fed often (Klomp and Furness 1992), thus forcing adults to find prey near the colony (Cecere et al 2013). In addition, instead of GLS, we used GPS technology which allowed us to determine bird position with a much greater accuracy and resolution.…”