Bi-axial orientation could explain range expansion in a migratory songbird

Abstract

The likelihood of a new migratory route evolving is a function of the associated fitness payoff, and the probability that the route arises in the first place. Cross-breeding studies suggest that young birds migrate in a direction intermediate between their parents, though this would seemingly not explain how highly divergent migratory trajectories arise in apparently sympatric populations. It has been suggested that diametrically opposed ‘reverse’ migratory trajectories might be surprisingly common, and if such routes were heritable it follows that they could underlie the rapid evolution of divergent migratory trajectories. Here, we used Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla; ‘blackcap’) ringing recoveries and geolocator trajectories to investigate whether a recently-evolved northwards autumn migratory route could be explained by the reversal of each individual’s expected southwards migratory direction. We found that northwards migrants were recovered closer to the sites specified by a precise axis reversal than would be expected by chance, consistent with the rapid evolution of new migratory routes via bi-axial variation in orientation. We suggest that the surprisingly high probability of axis reversal might allow birds to expand their ranges rapidly, and hence propose that understanding how direction is encoded is crucial when characterising the genetic basis of migratory direction and how this relates to route evolution.