Coastal specialised species have naturally restricted distribution areas and may be drastically affected by fragmentation or loss of their habitats due to ongoing changes, such as artificialisation, shoreline erosion, rising water levels or colonisation by invasive species. In this context we characterise the land occupation strategies of a Western Atlantic French coastal endemic bird: the Bluethroat Cyanecula svecica namnetum. Our study focuses on a key period of the life cycle of this species: the post-breeding moult. Capture and recapture sessions in intertidal habitats have allowed us to retrieve 26% of local breeders during their moulting period. The modeling of moult kinetics revealed that moult of flight feathers takes 37-50 days. A radio-tracking survey of moulting birds revealed exploitation by individuals of both the lowest and tallest vegetal formations of intertidal sites and exploitation of small home ranges (0.42-1.34 ha), typical of locations where trophic resources tend to be abundant and predictable. Analyses of droppings highlighted that Coleoptera, Aranea and marine crustaceans (Amphipoda) contributed most of the prey biomass consumed, amphipods being particularly selected by birds in active moult. Our results underline the importance of intertidal wetlands in terms of trophic opportunities to compensate for the energy costs of moult for the Bluethroat. Given the global changes already dramatically affecting coastal habitats, we emphasise that special attention should be given to the conservation of intertidal wetlands for marshland passerines of conservation concern such as the Bluethroat, and that restoration of adjacent coastal terrain is a promising development.

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Background The European Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is a small plunge-diving bird, today considered a species of conservation concern in Europe given its rapid population decline observed across the continent. We implemented a pilot study aimed at providing first data allowing to: (1) assess home range features of the European Kingfisher for populations with unevenly distributed feeding habitats; (2) define conservation implications for habitats exploited by such populations; and (3) evaluate possibilities for developing GPS tracking schemes dedicated to home range studies for this species that could be possibly applied to other small plunge-diving birds. Methods In 2018 and 2019, we equipped 16 breeding European Kingfishers sampled within the marshes of the Gironde Estuary (France), with miniaturized and waterproof GPS archival tags deployed with leg-loop harnesses (total equipment mass = 1.4 g; average bird mass = 40.18 ± 1.12 g). Results On average, we collected 35.31 ± 6.66 locations usable for analyses, without a significant effect on bird body condition (n = 13 tags retrieved). Data analyses highlighted rather limited home ranges exploited by birds (average = 2.50 ± 0.55 ha), composed on average by 2.78 ± 0.40 location nuclei. Our results also underscore: (1) a rather important home range fragmentation index (0.36 ± 0.08); and (2) the use by birds of different types of small wetlands (wet ditches, small ponds or small waterholes), often exploited in addition to habitats encompassing nest locations. Conclusions Our study reveals interesting GPS tracking possibilities for small plunge-diving birds such as the European Kingfisher. For this species, today classified as vulnerable in Europe, our results underline the importance of developing conservation and ecological restoration policies for wetland networks that would integrate small wetlands particularly sensitive to global change.

The Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola is the only endangered songbird in continental Europe. This trans-Saharan migratory bird significantly transits along the French Atlantic coastline during post-breeding migration and the right bank of the Gironde estuary has been identified as an important stopover site. We studied the spatial occupancy strategies of stationing individuals during August of three successive years (2010)(2011)(2012). We characterized habitat use by radio-tracking individuals revealing relatively small foraging ranges (6.6 ± 2.6 ha on average) with only 1 ha actually exploited (core area), and a relatively high habitat fragmentation rate. Capture-mark-recapture analyses assessed the average stopover duration of individuals and body-mass variations during their stopover. The estimated average stopover duration was 6.46 ± 0.46 days (95% confidence interval: 4.4-9.6). Lean birds tended to forage significantly more than stout birds: on average, they gain 2.81 ± 0.89% of their initial mass each day whereas stout birds only gain 0.12 ± 0.56%. Analyses of droppings characterized the local diet. We noticed that Aquatic Warbler preferentially used partially-flooded or flooded habitats with heterogeneous and rather low vegetation, such as bulrush beds or bulrush beds mixed with reed beds. Orthoptera, Araneae and Hymenoptera represented the largest contributions to the consumed biomass (64.7%, 13.4% and 8.9% respectively). The importance of the fuel deposition rate of lean birds reflects the importance of the estuary as a stopover site for the species. It means that the available resources allow birds to replenish and continue their migration route. However, the sustainability of the site's functionality is questioned because of the evolution of habitats (erosion, rise in water levels and changes in food web).