Nocturnal Migrants Foraging at Night by Artificial Light

Lebbin, Daniel J.; Harvey, Michael; Lenz, Timothy C.; Andersen, Michael J.; Ellis, Jesse M.S.

doi:10.1676/06-139.1

Cited by 38 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although birds exposed to light in the night show earlier onset of activity in the morning (Dominoni et al 2014;Da Silva et al 2014), some studies suggest that artificial light at night is not an important driver of the timing of foraging behaviour in winter period (Clewley et al 2015). However, other results indicate that species are able to extend their activity period by utilising artificial light during the winter (Byrkjedal et al 2012) and typically diurnal birds are capable of foraging at night under artificial illumination (Lebbin et al 2007). We believe that the wintering bird density may change as a result of the extended photoperiod -this is probably to the advantage of urban dwellers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat type, food resources, noise and light pollution explain the species composition, abundance and stability of a winter bird assemblage in an urban environment

Ciach

Fröhlich

2016

Urban Ecosyst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At present, urban areas cover almost 3% of the Earth's terrestrial area, and this proportion is constantly increasing. Although urbanization leads to a decline in biodiversity, at the same time it creates extensive habitats that are exploited by an assemblage of organisms, including birds. The species composition and density of birds nesting in towns and cities are determined by the types of buildings, the structure and maturity of urban greenery, and habitat diversity. In contrast, the habitat traits shaping the community of birds wintering in urban areas are not known. The aim of this work was to assess the influence of habitat structure, food resources and the urban effects (pollution, noise, artificial light) on an assemblage of birds overwintering in an urban area. It was carried out in 2014 and 2015 in the city of Kraków (southern Poland), on 56 randomly chosen sample plots, in which the composition, density and interseasonal similarity of bird assemblage were assessed with line transect method. A total of 64 bird species (mean = 17.7 ± 4.9 SD species/plot) was recorded. The mean density was 89.6 ind./km ±63.3 SD. The most numerous species were Great Tit Parus major, Magpie Pica pica, Blackbird Turdus merula, Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, Rook Corvus frugilegus, Fieldfare Turdus pilaris and House Sparrow Passer domesticus. Noise adversely affected species numbers and density, but artificial light acted positively on the density of birds and their interseasonal stability. The species richness and density of birds were also determined by the number of food sources available (e.g. bird-feeders). In addition, the greater the proportion of open areas, the fewer species were recorded. In contrast, the more urban greenery there was, the greater the density of the entire bird assemblage. Urban infrastructure (buildings, roads, refuse tips) had a positive effect on the interseasonal stabilization of the species composition of wintering birds. The results of this work indicate that the urban effect, i.e. noise and light pollution, apart from purely habitat factors, provide a good explanation for the species richness, density and stability of bird assemblage wintering in urban areas.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat type, food resources, noise and light pollution explain the species composition, abundance and stability of a winter bird assemblage in an urban environment

Ciach

Fröhlich

2016

Urban Ecosyst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Apart from two recent long-term experimental illumination studies that included several generations of key species [26,27], the effects of ALAN have only been studied in laboratory experiments (e.g., [15,28]) or by making observations at or near existing public light infrastructure [29][30][31][32]. The limitations of these approaches include an inability to predict community-and ecosystem-level effects from laboratory experiments, and the potentially confounding effect of studying communities of organisms that are already accustomed to the presence of ALAN [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of the Dark: Establishing a Large-Scale Field Experiment to Assess the Effects of Artificial Light at Night on Species and Food Webs

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is one of the most obvious hallmarks of human presence in an ecosystem. The rapidly increasing use of artificial light has fundamentally transformed nightscapes throughout most of the globe, although little is known about how ALAN impacts the biodiversity and food webs of illuminated ecosystems. We developed a large-scale experimental infrastructure to study the effects of ALAN on a light-naïve, natural riparian (i.e., terrestrial-aquatic) ecosystem. Twelve street lights (20 m apart) arranged in three rows parallel to an agricultural drainage ditch were installed on each of two sites located in a grassland ecosystem in northern Germany. A range of biotic, abiotic, and photometric data are collected regularly to study the short-and long-term effects of ALAN on behavior, species interactions, physiology, and species composition of communities. Here we describe the infrastructure setup and data collection methods, and characterize the study area including photometric measurements. None of the measured parameters differed significantly between sites in the period before illumination. Results of one short-term experiment, carried out with one site illuminated and the other acting as a control, demonstrate the attraction of ALAN by the immense and immediate increase of insect catches at the lit street lights. The experimental setup provides a unique platform for carrying out interdisciplinary research on sustainable lighting.

show abstract

“…The impact of light pollution on the timing of maintenance behaviour has been studied even less, even though behaviours such as foraging are crucial for survival. Anecdotal reports of diurnal birds feeding close to artificial light sources at unusual times of the night are numerous and concern various taxa (King , Felton , Blackett , Brooke , Bakken and Bakken , Lebbin et al , Pugh and Pawson ), but more systematic studies of this behaviour are scarce. During the breeding season, common blackbirds Turdus merula and northern mockingbirds Mimus polyglottos have been shown to prolong foraging and chick provisioning (respectively) shortly after dusk in areas with artificial night lighting (Stracey et al , Russ et al ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We discuss these findings and the importance of temperature and winter weather in shaping the observed foraging patterns. sources at unusual times of the night are numerous and concern various taxa (King 1966, Felton 1969, Blackett 1970, Brooke 1973, Bakken and Bakken 1977, Lebbin et al 2007, Pugh and Pawson 2016, but more systematic studies of this behaviour are scarce. During the breeding season, common blackbirds Turdus merula and northern mockingbirds Mimus…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of experimental night lighting on the daily timing of winter foraging in common European songbirds

Silva

Diez‐Méndez

Kempenaers

2017

Journal of Avian Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ecological effects of light pollution are becoming better understood, especially in birds. Recent studies have shown that several bird species can use street lighting to extend activity into the night during the breeding season. However, most of these studies are correlational and little is known about the effects of artificial night lighting on the timing of activities outside the breeding season. During winter, low temperatures and short days may limit foraging opportunities and can negatively affect survival of resident birds. However, night lighting may allow them to expand the time niche available for foraging. Here, we report on a study where we repeatedly manipulated the amount of night lighting during early winter at automated feeding stations in a natural forest. We used video-recordings at the feeders to determine the time of the first (at dawn) and last (at dusk) foraging visits for six songbird species. We predicted that all species, and in particular the naturally early-foraging species, would advance their daily onset of foraging during the mornings with night lighting, but would show minimal or no delays in their daily cessation of foraging during the lighted evenings. We found that two early-foraging species, the blue tit and the great tit, started foraging earlier during the experimentally lighted mornings. However, in great tits, this effect was weak and restricted to nights with inclement weather. The light treatment did not have any effect on the start of foraging in the willow/marsh tit, the nuthatch, the European jay, and the blackbird. Artificial night lighting did not cause later foraging at dusk in any of the six species. Overall, our results suggest that artificial light during winter has only small effects on timing of foraging. We discuss these findings and the importance of temperature and winter weather in shaping the observed foraging patterns.

show abstract

Nocturnal Migrants Foraging at Night by Artificial Light

Cited by 38 publications

References 2 publications

Habitat type, food resources, noise and light pollution explain the species composition, abundance and stability of a winter bird assemblage in an urban environment

Habitat type, food resources, noise and light pollution explain the species composition, abundance and stability of a winter bird assemblage in an urban environment

Out of the Dark: Establishing a Large-Scale Field Experiment to Assess the Effects of Artificial Light at Night on Species and Food Webs

Effects of experimental night lighting on the daily timing of winter foraging in common European songbirds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About