New discoveries in landbird migration using geolocators, and a flight plan for the future

Abstract

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Prolonged stopover and consequences of migratory strategy on local-scale movements within a regional songbird staging area

“…Although staging activity is typically attributed to shorebirds and waterfowl (Dunne et al 1982, Newton 2008, numerous geolocator studies have recently reported passerines making stops ranging from 8 to 36 days (Heckscher et al 2011,Åkesson et al 2012, Delmore et al 2012, Tøttrup et al 2012, Callo et al 2013, Fraser et al 2013, Jahn et al 2013, Kristensen et al 2013, Renfrew et al 2013, Wolfe and Johnson 2015, Van Loon et al 2017 that are analogous in length to staging events. Stops of .7 days surpass the amount of time theoretically expected for migratory refueling under optimality models (Alerstam 1991) and have been classified as ''prolonged stopover''-a behavior distinct from typical songbird stopover (McKinnon et al 2013).…”

“…Stops of .7 days surpass the amount of time theoretically expected for migratory refueling under optimality models (Alerstam 1991) and have been classified as ''prolonged stopover''-a behavior distinct from typical songbird stopover (McKinnon et al 2013). Although it is still unclear why songbirds exhibit this behavior, these extended stops may be an adaptive strategy for accumulating large fat stores at food-rich sites to fuel long migratory flights (Tøttrup et al 2012, Callo et al 2013), especially just before or after a barrier (Delmore et al 2012, Fraser et al 2013, Gómez et al 2017).…”

“…Stops of .7 days surpass the amount of time theoretically expected for migratory refueling under optimality models (Alerstam 1991) and have been classified as ''prolonged stopover''-a behavior distinct from typical songbird stopover (McKinnon et al 2013). Although it is still unclear why songbirds exhibit this behavior, these extended stops may be an adaptive strategy for accumulating large fat stores at food-rich sites to fuel long migratory flights (Tøttrup et al 2012, Callo et al 2013), especially just before or after a barrier (Delmore et al 2012, Fraser et al 2013, Gómez et al 2017). Regardless of their purpose, effective conservation requires identifying prolonged stopover areas (McKinnon et al 2017, Van Loon et al 2017) and understanding behavioral patterns at these sites, because localized loss of stopover resources can pose an ecological bottleneck (Myers 1983, Buehler and Piersma 2008, Gómez et al 2017.…”

“…Samplesize restrictions of geolocators have also limited the study of how prolonged stopover differs between individuals. However, intraspecific differences in prolonged stopover are likely, given that factors like capture date and breeding latitude can markedly influence stopover duration (Gómez et al 2017, Van Loon et al 2017, migration rate (La Sorte et al 2013, Brown and, and route choice (Delmore et al 2012, Fraser et al 2013. Understanding intraspecific differences is important from a conservation perspective.…”

“….7 days; McKinnon et al 2013) during fall migration in the Gulf of Maine (GOM)-that is, the portion of our study area north of Cape Cod (Figure 1). We also quantified several migration metrics throughout the full extent of the tracking array, including number of stops, total time in stopover, movement rate, and ratio of flight distance per stop.…”