A Boreal Songbird's 20,000 km Migration Across North America and the Atlantic Ocean

DeLuca, William V.; Woodworth, Bradley K.; Mackenzie, Stuart A.; Newman, Amy E. M.; Cooke, Hilary A.; Phillips, Laura M.; Freeman, Nikole E.; Sutton, Alex O.; Tauzer, Lila; McIntyre, Carol L.; Stenhouse, Iain J.; Weidensaul, Scott; Taylor, Philip; Norris, D. Ryan

doi:10.1002/bes2.1551

Cited by 6 publications

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“…Avian migration involves a suite of complex behavioral and physiological responses to exogenous seasonal cues including changes in diet and metabolism, the onset of migratory restlessness (zugunruhe), and precise directional orientation (Bairlein, Eikenaar, & Schmaljohann, 2015;Berthold, 1996;Gwinner, 1990;Jenni & Schaub, 2003). The culmination of these responses allow individual birds to accomplish amazing migratory feats, sometimes flying over ocean for several days at a time or navigating thousands of kilometers through unfamiliar habitat between wintering and breeding grounds (Bairlein et al, 2012;Battley et al, 2012;DeLuca et al, 2019DeLuca et al, , 2015Gill et al, 2009;McKinnon, Artuso, & Love, 2017). Each of these behavioral and physiological responses is likely genetically inherited (Berthold & Pulido, 1994;Helbig, 1991;Liedvogel & Lundberg, 2014;Pulido, Berthold, Mohr, & Querner, 2001) and could be under natural selection (Gienapp, Leimu, & Merilä, 2007;Nilsson, Klaassen, & Alerstam, 2013;Pulido & Berthold, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blackpoll warblers breed across the North American boreal forest from Alaska to Newfoundland and in isolated montane fir forests at the southern periphery of their range in northeastern United States (Figure 2; DeLuca et al, 2013). Annual blackpoll warbler migration between the northern breeding grounds and wintering grounds in the Amazon basin of northern South America is one of the longest migratory routes for any North American songbird (DeLuca et al, 2013;Morris et al, 2016), and was recently tracked from geographically distant breeding populations using light-level geolocators (DeLuca et al, 2015(DeLuca et al, , 2019 Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Birds depart the wintering grounds in mid-April to mid-May and travel through the Greater Antilles and continental United States to their northern breeding territories, a trip that can vary in duration considerably depending on breeding location (mean 34 days, range 17-49 days; DeLuca et al, 2019). After departing the breeding grounds in August through October, blackpoll warblers first migrate southeastward to the Atlantic coast of United States and Canada, then migrate south over the Atlantic Ocean to their South American wintering grounds, a nonstop trans-oceanic flight of up to 3,000 km that may take up to three days (DeLuca et al, 2015(DeLuca et al, , 2019 similar times compared to birds breeding further east (DeLuca et al, 2015(DeLuca et al, , 2019. Like in the spring, fall migration timing and duration varies across breeding populations with western breeding birds departing earlier and taking longer to arrive at wintering grounds compared to eastern breeding birds (DeLuca et al, 2015(DeLuca et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All individuals used in this analysis were unrelated breeding adult males. Full details on the methods of geolocator deployment and the analysis of geolocator track data are available inDeLuca et al (2019). For the current study, we analyze six migratory traits related to phenology and duration of migration:(a) spring departure date from wintering grounds, (b) duration of spring migration, (c) spring arrival date on the breeding grounds, (d) fall departure date from breeding grounds, (e) duration of fall migration, and (f) fall arrival date on the wintering grounds.We tested for correlations between Clock and Adcyap1 allele lengths and each of the six migratory traits using GLMs.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Right: adult breeding male captured in Yukon Territories in 2018, and affixed with a light-level geolocator. Breeding distribution (dark gray) and fall migratory route (light gray with dashed outline) for blackpoll warblers followingDeLuca et al (2013DeLuca et al ( , 2019DeLuca et al ( , 2015. Sample location is shown with black circles with sample sizes in parentheses.…”

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Length polymorphisms at two candidate genes explain variation of migratory behaviors in blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata)

Ralston

Lorenc

Montes

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Migratory behaviors such as the timing and duration of migration are genetically inherited and can be under strong natural selection, yet we still know very little about the specific genes or molecular pathways that control these behaviors. Studies in candidate genes Clock and Adcyap1 have revealed that both of these loci can be significantly correlated with migratory behaviors in birds, though observed relationships appear to vary across species. We investigated geographic genetic structure of Clock and Adcyap1 in four populations of blackpoll warblers ( Setophaga striata ), a Neotropical–Nearctic migrant that exhibits geographic variation in migratory timing and duration across its boreal breeding distribution. Further, we used data on migratory timing and duration, obtained from light‐level geolocator trackers to investigate candidate genotype–phenotype relationships at the individual level. While we found no geographic structure in either candidate gene, we did find evidence that candidate gene lengths are correlated with five of the six migratory traits. Maximum Clock allele length was significantly and negatively associated with spring arrival date. Minimum Adcyap1 allele length was significantly and negatively associated with spring departure date and positively associated with fall arrival date at the wintering grounds. Additionally, we found a significant interaction between Clock and Adcyap1 allele lengths on both spring and fall migratory duration. Adcyap1 heterozygotes also had significantly shorter migration duration in both spring and fall compared to homozygotes. Our results support the growing body of evidence that Clock and Adcyap1 allele lengths are correlated with migratory behaviors in birds.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Length polymorphisms at two candidate genes explain variation of migratory behaviors in blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata)

Ralston

Lorenc

Montes

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Integrating data types to estimate spatial patterns of avian migration across the Western Hemisphere

Meehan

Saunders

DeLuca

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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For many avian species, spatial migration patterns remain largely undescribed, especially across hemispheric extents. Recent advancements in tracking technologies and high-resolution species distribution models (i.e., eBird Status and Trends products) provide new insights into migratory bird movements and offer a promising opportunity for integrating independent data sources to describe avian migration. Here, we present a three-stage modeling framework for estimating spatial patterns of avian migration. First, we integrate tracking and band re-encounter data to quantify migratory connectivity, defined as the relative proportions of individuals migrating between breeding and nonbreeding regions. Next, we use estimated connectivity proportions along with eBird occurrence probabilities to produce probabilistic least-cost path (LCP) indices. In a final step, we use generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) both to evaluate the ability of LCP indices to accurately predict (i.e., as a covariate) observed locations derived from tracking and band re-encounter data sets versus pseudo-absence locations during migratory periods and to create a fully integrated (i.e., eBird occurrence, LCP, and tracking/band re-encounter data) spatial prediction index for mapping species-specific seasonal migrations. To illustrate this approach, we apply this framework to describe seasonal migrations of 12 bird species across the Western Hemisphere during pre-and postbreeding migratory periods (i.e., spring and fall, respectively). We found that including LCP indices with eBird occurrence in GAMMs generally improved the ability to accurately predict observed migratory locations compared to models with eBird occurrence alone. Using three performance metrics, the eBird + LCP model demonstrated equivalent or superior fit relative to theeBird-only model for 22 of 24 species-season GAMMs. In particular, the integrated index filled in spatial gaps for species with over-water movements and those that migrated over land where there were few eBird sightings and, thus, low predictive ability of eBird occurrence probabilities (e.g., Amazonian rainforest in South America). This methodology of combining individual-based seasonal movement data with temporally dynamic species distribution models provides a comprehensive approach to integrating multiple data types to describe broad-scale spatial patterns of animal movement. Further development and customization of this approach will continue to advance knowledge about the full annual cycle and conservation of migratory birds.

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The evolution of wood warbler flight calls: Species with similar migrations produce acoustically similar calls

2021

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Diverse animal species engage in long-distance migrations. Many migrants travel in groups, and communication within these groups may be important to survival and successful migration. We examined migration and communication in 36 species of wood warblers (Parulidae), songbirds that breed in North America and migrate in mixed-species flocks to their wintering grounds. During migration, wood warblers produce short vocalizations called "flight calls." The function of flight calls and the patterns of acoustic similarity between species are poorly understood. We investigated whether acoustic similarity of flight calls of different species of warbler reflects the similarity in their migratory journeys or their phylogenetic relatedness. We found that phylogeny, similarity in breeding latitude, and overlap in the timing of migration predict acoustic flight call similarity across warbler species. Further, we found that phylogeny, similarity in migration distance, and overlap in wintering range predict acoustic flight call similarity in a subset of 12 species with highly similar calls, although this analysis has a small sample size. We conclude that migratory similarity may be an important force driving the evolution of acoustically similar calls in wood warblers, in addition to phylogenetic relatedness. Acoustic convergence in these species may facilitate communication between individuals with similar migrations.

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A Boreal Songbird's 20,000 km Migration Across North America and the Atlantic Ocean

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Length polymorphisms at two candidate genes explain variation of migratory behaviors in blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata)

Length polymorphisms at two candidate genes explain variation of migratory behaviors in blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata)

Integrating data types to estimate spatial patterns of avian migration across the Western Hemisphere

The evolution of wood warbler flight calls: Species with similar migrations produce acoustically similar calls

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