Individual migration timing of common nightingales is tuned with vegetation and prey phenology at breeding sites

Emmenegger, Tamara; Hahn, Steffen; Bauer, Silke

doi:10.1186/1472-6785-14-9

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Birds arrived nonetheless within a short period without mentionable differences between the populations, despite 2.5 weeks earlier spring green-up on the Danish site compared to the alpine breeding site. Arrival of birds from the northern and central European populations was almost identical, pointing towards timing for early arrival being independent of actual spring proxies at the final breeding destination (contrary to pattern found i.e., in Common Nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos), Emmenegger et al 2014). Nonetheless, the low variation in arrival dates of redstart males (all CH and six of seven DK birds) across the two populations is in line with expectations of strong selection for early arrival at breeding grounds (Kokko 1999), probably to enhance occupation of breeding territories (Sirot and Touzalin 2014), mating potentials and therefore fitness.…”

Section: Environmental Conditions and Arrivals At Breeding Groundsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…For positioning, we used the threshold method, and sunrise and sunset times were defined as the time when light intensity passed the threshold of one light intensity unit, corresponding to about 30-46 lx. Sunrise and sunset times were determined using GeoLocator software (Swiss Ornithological Institute); all subsequent analytical steps were carried out with the R package GeoLight (Lisovski et al 2012a) using standard procedure given in Lisovski and Hahn (2012) and Emmenegger et al (2014). We removed outlying sun event data using loessFilter function with an interquartile threshold of k = 2.…”

Section: Tracking Of Central European Common Redstartsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Timing of migration in Common Redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) in relation to the vegetation phenology at residence sites

Gersten

Hahn

2016

J Ornithol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Timing the annual cycle according to local conditions is crucial for animals in seasonal environments, because individual resource requirements must match seasonal resource availabilities. Pre-nuptial spring migration is especially time constrained in many migratory species, and thus tight adjustments of departure and arrival times to local environmental conditions can be expected. We determined non-breeding residences of Common Redstarts, an insectivorous Palearctic-African migrant, from a central European population. Non-breeding residencies of three out of four males were located in the northern Sahel of WestAfrica; a single individual did not cross the Sahara desert, but spent the non-breeding season in Northern Africa instead. Additionally, we related local vegetation phenology and the timing of spring migration in a central and a northern European population differing largely in breeding site latitude. The arrival at and departure from the African sites was similar in birds from the central and the northern population. Departure from the non-breeding sites was not related to seasonal deterioration of vegetation. Birds from both populations arrived at their distant breeding grounds in the same time period. Since spring green-up times differed greatly, birds from the two populations encounter different phenological conditions at arrival. The missing relation between vegetation phenology and migration timing may indicate that spring migration in redstarts is triggered by other factors than vegetation development at least at the non-breeding sites. A general cue such as local photoperiod might be the candidate factor, which would also explain the small variation between the populations.

show abstract

Section: Environmental Conditions and Arrivals At Breeding Groundsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Tracking Of Central European Common Redstartsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing of migration in Common Redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) in relation to the vegetation phenology at residence sites

Gersten

Hahn

2016

J Ornithol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The majority of work using geolocator technology has so far been focused on describing migration patterns in songbirds. However, the accumulation of sufficient data has sparked an interest in studies considering the ecological context of movement patterns (Bridge et al 2015;Emmenegger et al 2014;Fraser et al 2012Streby et al 2014;Tøttrup et al 2012b). Despite this progress, tracking devices are still limited by the need for recapturing individuals to retrieve the data (Bridge et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Combining direct and indirect tracking techniques to assess the impact of sub-Saharan conditions on cross-continental songbird migration

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding how events throughout the annual cycle interact to influence individual fitness and hence population dynamics is crucial to optimize conservation strategies for migratory birds. Despite major advancements in technology, direct tracking devices for passerine songbirds are still limited by the need for recapturing tagged individuals. Stable-isotope analysis of bird tissue has the opportunity to supply information on a larger number of individuals, although it is limited by the indirect knowledge of the geographical position of the birds. In this study, we provide a first attempt to combine annual spatio-temporal data achieved from direct tracking with information on local environmental conditions by using stable isotopes (d 13 C and d 15 N). We use this approach to investigate if environmental conditions at the wintering area in southern Africa influence timing of spring migration and carry-over to affect breeding performance in a long-distance migratory passerine bird, the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio). We found that individuals wintering in relatively moist conditions (depleted in d 13 C) and at lower latitudes (closer to the breeding grounds) departed later on spring migration than individuals in more xeric habitats. However, the effect of non-breeding area conditions and latitude were not found at subsequent migration stages and late departing individuals spent fewer days on migration towards the breeding grounds. Although conditions in the non-breeding range have previously been suggested to influence population fluctuations in Redbacked Shrikes, we found no evidence of a carry-over effect on breeding performance. This study highlights the potential of combining different approaches when investigating seasonal interactions in migratory animals.

show abstract

“…To this end, we analyzed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)‐derived measures for the local phenology of non‐breeding, stopover, and breeding sites of Nightingales from three European populations (see Emmenegger et al. ; Hahn et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts in vegetation phenology along flyways entail varying risks of mistiming in a migratory songbird

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Citation: Emmenegger, T., S. Hahn, R. Arlettaz, V. Amrhein, P. Zehtindjiev, and S. Bauer. 2016. Shifts in vegetation phenology along flyways entail varying risks of mistiming in a migratory songbird. Ecosphere 7(6):e01385. 10.1002/ ecs2.1385Abstract. Long-term shifts in vegetation phenology generally follow the pattern of global warming. Yet, topographical complexity and biome diversity cause uneven spatial trends in the phenological response of vegetation to climate change. If phenology changes similarly along migration routes, individuals may adequately respond by shifting the whole migration schedule to still time life history with local phenological events. On the contrary, phenological shifts that differ in direction or magnitude between sites can enhance the risk of mistiming, resulting in reduced survival and reproductive success and eventually population declines. We identified the direction and magnitude of long-term shifts in vegetation phenology along avian migration routes, using remotely sensed vegetation data over 29 yr to estimate the risk of mistiming for different sets of assumptions concerning cues and adaptability of migration timing. For this study, we used individual series of non-breeding, spring stopover and breeding sites (determined by light-level geolocation) of three European populations of Luscinia megarhynchos (Common Nightingale), an insectivorous Palearctic long-distance migrant. The breeding populations in France, Italy, and Bulgaria are representatives for populations migrating on the western, central, and eastern flyway toward sub-Saharan Africa. The direction and magnitude of phenological shifts differed between migration stages and across flyways and under most sets of assumptions, the resulting risk of mistiming was higher in the Western compared to Central and Eastern flyway. We emphasize that estimates for the risk of mistiming as resulting from phenological shifts highly depend on the cues that migrants use to time migratory progression and on the adaptive potential of the particular migratory species to react to phenological shifts.

show abstract

Individual migration timing of common nightingales is tuned with vegetation and prey phenology at breeding sites

Cited by 32 publications

References 51 publications

Timing of migration in Common Redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) in relation to the vegetation phenology at residence sites

Timing of migration in Common Redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) in relation to the vegetation phenology at residence sites

Combining direct and indirect tracking techniques to assess the impact of sub-Saharan conditions on cross-continental songbird migration

Shifts in vegetation phenology along flyways entail varying risks of mistiming in a migratory songbird

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About