Post-breeding migration of four Long-tailed Skuas (Stercorarius longicaudus) from North and East Greenland to West Africa

Sittler, Benoît; Aebischer, Adrian; Gilg, Olivier

doi:10.1007/s10336-010-0597-6

Cited by 29 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Sooty shear waters use the area from late April to early June (present study), whereas skuas are resident from late May to early September (Kopp et al 2011). In late summer and fall, breeding Cory's shearwaters use the area on long foraging trips during the chick-rearing period (Magalhães et al 2008, Paiva et al 2010, Arctic terns stop in the area for ~24 d beginning in mid to late August (Egevang et al 2010), and post-breeding long-tailed skuas Stercorarius longicaudus stage in the region for 1 to 3 wk in August to September (Sittler et al 2011). In winter, dovekies, and black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla from Norway and Scotland, also use the area, in October to March (Mosbech et al 2012) and September to February (Bogdanova et al 2011, González-Solís et al 2011), respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trans-equatorial migration and habitat use by sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus from the South Atlantic during the nonbreeding season

Hedd

Montevecchi²,

Otley³

et al. 2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

100

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trans-equatorial migration and habitat use by sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus from the South Atlantic during the nonbreeding season

Hedd

Montevecchi²,

Otley³

et al. 2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

100

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The split at 1 January is well after arrival at the main wintering areas but before long-distance northward movements (Gilg et al 2013). The area between 25° and 60°N encompasses the large stopover area in the North Atlantic used by many seabirds, including long-tailed skuas (Sittler et al 2011, Gilg et al 2013. Few positions were obtained north of 60°N, in particular for birds breeding at Svalbard or Greenland as they travelled here at times with more or less constant daylight.…”

Section: Staging Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This long-distance migratory seabird breeds in the sub-to high Arctic. Details of migration routes, stopovers and movements during winter in the southern Atlantic have only recently been revealed (Sittler et al 2011, Gilg et al 2013. Gilg et al (2013) showed that long-tailed skuas have a strategy of itinerancy, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility in otherwise consistent non-breeding movements of a long-distance migratory seabird, the long-tailed skua

Bemmelen¹,

Moe²,

Hanssen³

et al. 2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Quantifying within-and between-individual variation in animal migration strategies is a first step towards our understanding of the ability of migrants to adjust to changes in the environment. We studied consistency (or, conversely, flexibility) in movement patterns at large (>1000 km) to meso-scales (100−1000 km) during the non-breeding season of the long-tailed skua Stercorarius longicaudus, a long-distance migratory Arctic seabird, using light-based geolocation. We obtained 97 annual tracks of 38 individuals and quantified similarity between routes. Overall, tracks of the same individual were generally within about 200 to 300 km of their previous year's route, and more similar than tracks of different individuals. Some flexibility was observed during migration, but individuals were faithful to their staging areas in the North Atlantic and in the Benguela Current off Namibia and South Africa. Over the course of the winter, an increasing number of individuals started to deviate -up to 5200 km -from the previous year's route. Intriguingly, individuals could be highly consistent between 2 consecutive years and flexible between other years. Site-shifts in late winter seem to reflect responses to local conditions, but what promotes this larger flexibility remains unclear and requires further study. Our results show that individual long-tailed skuas are generally consistent in their itineraries, but can show considerable flexibility in some years. The flexibility in itineraries suggests that long-tailed skuas are able to adjust to environmental change, but the mechanisms leading to the observed within-and between-individual variation in movement patterns are still poorly understood.

show abstract

“…Being the most pelagic of the three small Stercorarius species, little is known about its migration and the limits of individual wintering areas [3]. Recent studies based on satellite tracking described the initial post-breeding dispersal, but failed to document movements and distribution over the entire annual cycle [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus)

et al. 2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Long-tailed Skua, a small (<300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used light-level geolocators to track the annual movements of eight adult birds breeding in north-east Greenland (n = 3) and Svalbard (n = 5). All birds wintered in the Southern Hemisphere (mean arrival-departure dates on wintering grounds: 24 October-21 March): five along the south-west coast of Africa (0–40°S, 0–15°E), in the productive Benguela upwelling, and three further south (30–40°S, 0–50°E), in an area extending into the south-west Indian Ocean. Different migratory routes and rates of travel were documented during post-breeding (345 km d−1 in late August-early September) and spring migrations (235 km d−1 in late April) when most birds used a more westerly flyway. Among the different staging areas, a large region off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland appears to be the most important. It was used in autumn by all but one of the tracked birds (from a few days to three weeks) and in spring by five out of eight birds (from one to more than six weeks). Two other staging sites, off the Iberian coast and near the Azores, were used by two birds in spring for five to six weeks. Over one year, individuals travelled between 43,900 and 54,200 km (36,600–45,700 when excluding staging periods) and went as far as 10,500–13,700 km (mean 12,800 km) from their breeding sites. This study has revealed important marine areas in both the south and north Atlantic Ocean. Sustainable management of these ocean basins will benefit Long-tailed Skuas as well as other trans-equatorial migrants from the Arctic.

show abstract

Post-breeding migration of four Long-tailed Skuas (Stercorarius longicaudus) from North and East Greenland to West Africa

Cited by 29 publications

References 21 publications

Trans-equatorial migration and habitat use by sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus from the South Atlantic during the nonbreeding season

Trans-equatorial migration and habitat use by sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus from the South Atlantic during the nonbreeding season

Flexibility in otherwise consistent non-breeding movements of a long-distance migratory seabird, the long-tailed skua

Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About