Fine-Scaled Orientation Changes in Migrating Shorebirds

Grönroos, Johanna; Green, Martin A.; Alerstam, Thomas

doi:10.5253/078.100.0108

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Quantifying how the social environment affects migratory decisions has proven difficult because of the vast spatial scale of many migrations and the difficulty of quantifying the presence of conspecifics [28][29][30] . Animals can learn their migratory routes if they travel in the same time and place as informed conspecifics [31][32][33][34][35] . The age of an individual may also affect how it moves through its environment [36][37][38] and experienced individuals may be able to move more efficiently 17,20 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Brønnvik,

Nourani,

Fiedler

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Migration can be an energetically costly behavior with strong fitness consequences in terms of mortality and reproduction. The fact that costs and benefits may change with age and experience raises the question of whether experience changes the criteria that individuals use to select their migratory routes. Here we investigate the effect of age on route selection criteria in a collectively migrating soaring bird, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). We perform step selection analysis on a longitudinal data set tracking 158 white storks over up to nine years to quantify how they select their routes on the basis of the social and atmospheric environments, and to examine how this selection changes with age. We find clear ontogenetic shifts in route selection criteria. Juveniles choose routes that have good atmospheric conditions and high conspecific densities. Yet, as they gain experience storks’ selection on the availability of social information reduces—after their fifth migration experienced birds also choose routes with low conspecific densities. Thus, our results suggest that as individuals age, they gradually replace information gleaned from other individuals with information gained from experience, allowing them to shift their migration timing and increasing the time scale at which they select their routes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How route choice is influenced by the social environment and whether this influence changes as individuals age remain poorly understood. Animals can learn their migratory routes by traveling with informed conspecifics [42, 43, 44, 36]. The age of an individual may also affect how it moves through its environment [45, 46].…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Brønnvik,

Nourani,

Fiedler

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…On average, the terns actually aim somewhat north of this point, probably because this is the closest and visible part of the mainland. Shorebirds departing on autumn migration from Ottenby keep a somewhat different mean track direction at about 2348 [31], which would make them miss the point at Torhamn. This suggests inherently different preferred routes among different species, presumably rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil.…”

Section: Discussion (A) Migratory Flight Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology of tern flight in relation to wind, topography and aerodynamic theory

Hedenström

Åkesson

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'. Flight is an economical mode of locomotion, because it is both fast and relatively cheap per unit of distance, enabling birds to migrate long distances and obtain food over large areas. The power required to fly follows a U-shaped function in relation to airspeed, from which context dependent 'optimal' flight speeds can be derived. Crosswinds will displace birds away from their intended track unless they make compensatory adjustments of heading and airspeed. We report on flight track measurements in five geometrically similar tern species ranging one magnitude in body mass, from both migration and the breeding season at the island of Ö land in the Baltic Sea. When leaving the southern point of Ö land, migrating Arctic and common terns made a 608 shift in track direction, probably guided by a distant landmark. Terns adjusted both airspeed and heading in relation to tail and side wind, where coastlines facilitated compensation. Airspeed also depended on ecological context (searching versus not searching for food), and it increased with flock size. Species-specific maximum range speed agreed with predicted speeds from a new aerodynamic theory. Our study shows that the selection of airspeed is a behavioural trait that depended on a complex blend of internal and external factors.This article is part of the themed issue 'Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'.

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Orientation of shorebirds in relation to wind: both drift and compensation in the same region

2012

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Fine-Scaled Orientation Changes in Migrating Shorebirds

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 6 publications

References 14 publications

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Ecology of tern flight in relation to wind, topography and aerodynamic theory

Orientation of shorebirds in relation to wind: both drift and compensation in the same region

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