Animal movements at large spatial scales are of great importance in population ecology, yet little is known due to practical problems following individuals across landscapes. We studied the whole Norwegian population of a small songbird (ortolan bunting, Emberiza hortulana) occupying habitat patches dispersed over nearly 500 km2. Movements of colour‐ringed males were monitored during ten years, and extensive long‐distance dispersal was recorded. More than half of all cases of breeding dispersal took place within one breeding season, and males moved up to 43 km between singing territories, using 1–22 d. Natal dispersal was usually to a habitat patch close to the natal patch, or within the natal patch if it was large. Breeding dispersal movements were often long‐distance, beyond neighbouring patches, and up to 11–19 patches were overflown. Movements of at least 6–9 km across areas of unsuitable habitat occurred regularly. The number of patches visited was low (1–4) even though search costs in terms of time spent moving from one site to another were relatively low (often only a few days even for distances >10 km). Most males seemed to use a threshold tactic when choosing a patch, but returns to previously visited patches were recorded, including some cases of commuting. In conclusion, male ortolan buntings have a surprising ability to move quickly at the landscape level, and this resulted in a high connectivity of patches. We discuss our results in relation to optimal searching strategies, in particular the use of within‐breeding season versus post‐breeding season search, conspecific attraction and adaptive late arrival of young birds.

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Geographic variation in the plumage pattern of birds is widespread but poorly understood, and in very few cases has its evolutionary significance been investigated experimentally. Neotropical warblers of the genus Myioborus use their contrasting black-and-white plumage to flush insect prey during animated foraging displays. Although previous experimental work has demonstrated that white plumage patches are critical to flush-pursuit foraging success, the amount of white in the plumage shows considerable interspecific and intraspecific geographic variation. We investigated the evolutionary significance of this geographic variation by experimentally decreasing or increasing the amount of white in the tail of slate-throated redstarts (Myioborus miniatus comptus) from Monteverde, Costa Rica, to mimic the natural extremes of tail pattern variation in this species. In addition to measuring the effects of plumage manipulation on foraging performance, we performed field experiments measuring the escape response of a common insect prey species (an asilid fly) using model redstarts representing four different Myioborus plumage patterns. Our experiments were designed to test four hypotheses that could explain geographic variation in plumage pattern. Compared to controls, experimental birds with reduced-white tails that mimic the plumage pattern of M. miniatus hellmayri of Guatemala showed significant reductions in flush-pursuit foraging performance. In contrast, the addition of white to the tail to mimic the plumage pattern of M. miniatus verticalis of Bolivia had no significant effect on foraging performance of Costa Rican redstarts. In field experiments with asilid flies, model redstarts simulating the plumage of M. miniatus comptus of Costa Rica and M. miniatus verticalis of Bolivia elicited greater responses than did models of other Myioborus taxa with either less or more white in the plumage. The results of our experiments with both birds and insects allow us to reject two hypotheses for geographic variation in plumage pattern: (1) that geographic variation is a nonadaptive result of genetic drift, and (2) that selection for enhanced flush-pursuit foraging performance generally favors increased white in the plumage, but evolutionary trade-offs constrain the evolution of extensive patches of white in some geographic regions. Instead, our results suggest that geographic variation in the plumage pattern of Myioborus redstarts reflects adaptation to regional habitat characteristics that enhances flush-pursuit foraging performance.