Global aerial flyways allow efficient travelling

Kranstauber, Bart; Weinzierl, Rolf; Wikelski, Martin; Safi, Kamran

doi:10.1111/ele.12528

Cited by 106 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Taking a westerly route in spring may be advantageous because of stable tailwind patterns in West Sahara [37]. Additionally, they can benefit from foraging in areas where food becomes available, following the fall seasonal patterns of rain along these routes toward the winter areas [14].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual spatiotemporal migration schedules in three larger insectivorous birds: European nightjar, common swift and common cuckoo

Jacobsen

Jensen²,

Willemoes

et al. 2017

Anim Biotelemetry

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Background: Knowledge of spatiotemporal migration patterns is important for our understanding of migration ecology and ultimately conservation of migratory species. We studied the annual migration schedules of European nightjar, a large nocturnal insectivore and compared it with two other larger migratory insectivores, common swift and common cuckoo. All species breed in North Europe and winter in sub-Saharan Africa, but estimating their spatiotemporal non-breeding distributions from observations is complicated by the occurrence of similar local African species. We used geolocators to track the annual migrations of nightjars and swifts and compared these with satellite tracking of cuckoo migration.Results: Individuals of the three species migrated to wintering grounds centered in Central Africa, except some common swifts that remained in West Africa, crossing or circumventing the Sahara along different routes in spring and fall. Overall, all species showed similar regional and seasonal use of several stopover areas during migration. Among the three species, European nightjars and common cuckoos showed the most similar spatiotemporal migration patterns. The nightjars wintered in SW Central Africa and breeding and wintering made up by far the two longest stationary periods. Swifts were generally more mobile, and some individuals progressively visited areas further east in East Africa during winter and further west in West Africa on spring migration; this species also spent less time on stopovers, but more on wintering areas. Cuckoos were intermediate in their extent of movements. The speed of nightjar spring migration was equal to that of fall migration, in contrast to the two other species where spring return to breeding areas was faster. Conclusions: Ecological requirements are potentially useful for understanding spatiotemporal migration patterns and causes of declines in migratory species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual spatiotemporal migration schedules in three larger insectivorous birds: European nightjar, common swift and common cuckoo

Jacobsen

Jensen²,

Willemoes

et al. 2017

Anim Biotelemetry

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“…B 371: 20150393 Table 4. Median number of days spent on migration (including stopover periods) and travel (excluding stopovers) across the Sahara in spring and autumn, and speed of passage (migration and travel speed, km d conditions, which may lead to prolonged routes relative to great circle routes, but shorter travel times [75]. The optimal wind-assistance routes, may further lead to differential flight altitudes.…”

Section: (D) Migration In Relation To Windsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating an ecological barrier: crossing the Sahara in relation to winds by common swifts

Åkesson

Bianco

Hedenström

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'. The Sahara Desert is one of the largest land-based barriers on the Earth, crossed twice each year by billions of birds on migration. Here we investigate how common swifts migrating between breeding sites in Sweden and wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa perform the desert crossing with respect to route choice, winds, timing and speed of migration by analysing 72 geolocator tracks recording migration. The swifts cross western Sahara on a broad front in autumn, while in spring they seem to use three alternative routes across the Sahara, a western, a central and an eastern route across the Arabian Peninsula, with most birds using the western route. The swifts show slower migration and travel speeds, and make longer detours with more stops in autumn compared with spring. In spring, the stopover period in West Africa coincided with mostly favourable winds, but birds remained in the area, suggesting fuelling. The western route provided more tailwind assistance compared with the central route for our tracked swifts in spring, but not in autumn. The ultimate explanation for the evolution of a preferred western route is presumably a combination of matching rich foraging conditions (swarming insects) and favourable winds enabling fast spring migration.This article is part of the themed issue 'Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'.

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“…Substantial north-south-movements, including an equator crossing, on the other hand, will involve substantial changes of day length and of movement patterns of celestial bodies across the sky 144 , as well as a shifted geomagnetic inclination by migration. These routes probably offer more suitable habitats for refuelling after the desert crossing than the more direct routes from African wintering sites 20,147,148 , and possibly also favourable winds, resulting in a longer but energetically more economical route 149 . In this way, being at the right time at the right place, the birds would be able to use the temporarily available resources, despite the disadvantage of needing to travel further.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

Åkesson

Ilieva

Karagicheva

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

101

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Please refer to our instructions for authors for full details on manuscript preparation. Please note that this template should act as a guide on content, but doesn't necessarily need to be followed for style and formatting. Our typesetters will set your manuscript into house style after acceptance.*Author for correspondence (Susanne.akesson@biol.lu.se). †Present address: Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden 2 Summary Migratory birds regularly perform impressive long-distance flights, which are timed relative to the anticipated environmental resources at destination areas that can be several thousand kilometres away. Timely migration requires diverse strategies and adaptations that involve an intricate interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to succeed. We examine the following challenges: departing in time for spring and autumn migration, in anticipation of future environmental conditions; using clocks on the move, for example for orientation, navigation, and stopover; strategies of adhering to, or adjusting the time program while fitting their activities into an annual cycle; and keeping pace with a world of rapidly changing environments. We then elaborate these themes by case studies representing long-distance migrating birds with different annual movement patterns and associated adaptations of their circannual programs. We discuss the current knowledge on how endogenous migration programs interact with external information across the annual cycle, how components of annual cycle programs encode topography and range expansions, and how fitness may be affected when mismatches between timing and environmental conditions occur. Lastly, we outline open questions and propose future research directions. Non-technical summaryMigratory birds perform impressive long-distance flights, timed relative to the availability of resources in different geographical areas. To manage this birds use different strategies including an interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to meet these challenges. We discuss how range expansions affect components of annual cycle programs, and how mismatches between timing and environment may affect reproductive success.3

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Global aerial flyways allow efficient travelling

Cited by 106 publications

References 49 publications

Annual spatiotemporal migration schedules in three larger insectivorous birds: European nightjar, common swift and common cuckoo

Annual spatiotemporal migration schedules in three larger insectivorous birds: European nightjar, common swift and common cuckoo

Negotiating an ecological barrier: crossing the Sahara in relation to winds by common swifts

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

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