Itinerant lifestyle and congregation of lesser kestrels in West Africa

Lopez‐Ricaurte, Lina; Vansteelant, Wouter M. G.; Hernández‐Pliego, Jesús; García‐Silveira, Daniel; Casado, Susana; Garcés‐Toledano, Fernando; Martínez‐Dalmau, Juan; Ortega, Alfredo; Rodríguez‐Moreno, Beatriz; Bustamante, Javier

doi:10.1111/jav.03063

Cited by 5 publications

References 83 publications

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Local climate at breeding colonies influences pre-breeding arrival in a long-distance migrant

Lopez-Ricaurte,

Hernández-Pliego,

García-Silveira

et al. 2024

J Ornithol

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The annual cycles of long-distance migrant species are synchronized with the local climatic conditions at their breeding areas, as they impact the availability of food resources. A timely arrival of individuals to the breeding grounds is crucial for achieving high fitness. Variation in factors influencing timing, including climate, may thus impact the life history of individuals. We studied between-individual variation in migration timing, in particular how local breeding climate influences arrival time and how early-arriving individuals achieve a timely arrival. We tracked individual Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) with GPS tags across a gradient of latitude (37°–42° N) and longitude (6.5° W–16.5° E). Arrival time was influenced by the breeding latitude, the breeding longitude, and the local temperature, without any apparent influence of sex. The time of arrival at the breeding grounds was 6 days later for every degree increase in latitude and 2 days later for every degree increase in longitude. Lesser Kestrels from southwestern colonies achieve earlier arrival than conspecifics breeding at northeastern colonies, mostly due to earlier departure from their non-breeding grounds. While we found some effects of travel speed and stopover duration on arrival date, the latter was primarily influenced by food abundance and wind conditions en route. The large effect of departure date from West Africa on arrival date, relative to the more moderate influence of stopover duration close to breeding colonies, supports the idea that geographically uneven climate change may negatively affect fitness via ecological mismatches in the breeding area.

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Local climate at breeding colonies influences pre-breeding arrival in a long-distance migrant

Lopez-Ricaurte,

Hernández-Pliego,

García-Silveira

et al. 2024

J Ornithol

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Foxtrot migration and dynamic over-wintering range of an arctic raptor

Pokrovsky

Curk

Dietz

et al. 2023

Preprint

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To conserve bird species threatened by climate change, it is important to understand how environmental factors affected by climate change, such as snow cover, impact their ranges. While this problem is fairly well understood for breeding areas, it remains poorly understood for non-breeding areas. In non-breeding areas, seasonal cycles can strongly influence the distribution of resources during winter. If birds adapt to such changes, they may result in seasonal and directional movement of birds within their non-breeding range. In this case, birds would experience a unique migration pattern - rapid migration between breeding and non-breeding habitats versus a slow migration pattern within their non-breeding range. Their non-breeding range would therefore be dynamic, with potentially important consequences for our understanding of population densities and non-breeding ranges. Between 2013-2021, we tracked 43 adult Rough-legged buzzards with solar GPS-GSM loggers. We analyzed their behavior, determined whether the birds showed any directional return migrations during the non-breeding season, and evaluated the differences between the slow migration within their winter range and the quick migration between breeding and non-breeding areas. We also analyzed the vegetation cover of the areas crossed during quick and slow migrations and the role of snow cover in winter migrations. Our findings revealed that after a quick fall migration through the taiga zone, Rough-legged buzzards continue to migrate during the non-breeding season, albeit at a slower pace across the wooded fields they select as habitat. They avoid complete snow cover and move to escape the progression of the snow cover line from northeast to southwest and back during the winter. As a consequence, Rough-legged buzzards have a dynamic winter range. Thus, the migration pattern of these birds comprises alternating quick and slow phases, resembling the foxtrot dance, which we have named the foxtrot migration pattern. Due to this pattern, their winter range displays a dynamic shift of the seasonal center of the population distribution over 1000 km towards the southwest and back throughout the winter. Our study uncovered a novel bird migration pattern postulated to exist before but poorly understood. This foxtrot migration likely occurs in many migratory species inhabiting winter areas with pronounced seasonal cycles. Our findings have implications for conservation efforts in the Anthropocene, where environmental factors such as snow cover can change rapidly and have cascading effects on bird migration. We recommend presenting dynamic winter ranges in species descriptions and range maps so ecologists can use them to develop effective conservation strategies.

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Recurrence, fidelity and proximity to previously visited sites throughout the annual cycle in a trans‐Saharan migrant, the common cuckoo

Bonaldi,

Vardanis,

Willemoes

et al. 2024

Journal of Avian Biology

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Most migratory birds return every year to the same breeding sites and some species show a similarly high fidelity to wintering grounds as well. Fidelity to stopover sites during migration has been much less studied and is usually found to be lower. Here, we investigate site fidelity and distance to previously visited sites throughout the annual cycle in the common cuckoo, a nocturnal trans‐Saharan migrant, based on satellite‐tracking data from repeated annual migrations of thirteen adult males. All birds (100%) returned to the same breeding grounds, with a median shortest distance of only 1 km from the locations in previous year. This was in strong contrast to a much lower and much less precise site fidelity at non‐breeding sites during the annual cycle: In only 18% of the possible cases in all non‐breeding regions combined, did the cuckoos return to within 50 km of a previously visited non‐breeding site, with no significant differences among the main staging regions (Europe in autumn, Sahel in autumn, wintering in Central Africa, West Africa in spring, Europe in spring). The shortest distance to a previously visited non‐breeding site differed among the staging regions with median shortest distances for the longest stopovers of 131 km [2;1223] (median [min;max]) in Europe, 207 km [1;2222] in Sahel in autumn and 110 km [0;628] in Central Africa. The distance to a previously visited staging site decreased with the time spent at the stopover in a previous year. Understanding the drivers of recurrence and site selection in migratory birds are important for guiding conservation efforts in this group but further studies are needed to establish whether the patterns observed in cuckoos are general among terrestrial migrants with continuous distribution of habitat.

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Itinerant lifestyle and congregation of lesser kestrels in West Africa

Cited by 5 publications

References 83 publications

Local climate at breeding colonies influences pre-breeding arrival in a long-distance migrant

Local climate at breeding colonies influences pre-breeding arrival in a long-distance migrant

Foxtrot migration and dynamic over-wintering range of an arctic raptor

Recurrence, fidelity and proximity to previously visited sites throughout the annual cycle in a trans‐Saharan migrant, the common cuckoo

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