Seasonal, size‐ and age‐related patterns in body‐mass and composition of Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima in Britain

Summers, Ron W.; Underhill, Les G.; Nicoll, M.; Rae, Robbie; Piersma, Theunis

doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1992.tb08014.x

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…To determine if birds were carrying additional fuel stores (primarily fat but also protein; Lindström & Piersma 1993), a fuel index was estimated by first estimating lean mass from a regression between lean mass and bill length, using data from Summers et al . (1992).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure, biometrics and moult of migrant Purple SandpipersCalidris maritimain southwest Iceland in spring

Summers¹,

Hallgrímsson²,

Aiton³

et al. 2009

Bird Study

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Capsule Iceland is a stop-over site for a population of Purple Sandpipers that winter in Britain. Here, they accumulate fuel loads for onward migration along with birds that have wintered in Iceland. Aims To establish whether Purple Sandpipers from Britain stop-over in Iceland during spring migration and, if so, to describe their population structure, changes in mass and moult. Methods Purple Sandpipers were cannon-netted on the coast of the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland during May 2003 and 2005. Birds were aged, sexed (some by DNA) and standard biometric measurements made. Active body moult was scored. Results Bill and wing lengths showed that the Purple Sandpipers we caught were similar to one of the populations that winter in Britain rather than Icelandic breeding birds. There were more males than females throughout the migration period (63% males for first-year-birds and 67% for adult birds). Accounting for a bias due to a higher percentage of males in a less usual habitat (muddy/sandy bays), the values for rocky sites were 52% males for first-year birds and 62% for adults. The percentage of firstyear birds was 19% in 2003 and 32% in 2005, though the latter figure was biased by catches in muddy/sandy bays where there was a higher percentage of young birds. The percentage of first-year birds was 25% on just the rocky shores in 2005. Many birds were in latter stages of body moult, and males were slightly in advance of females. Increasing mass showed that they were preparing for onward migration. The average increase of 0.58 g per day was similar to the rate measured in Orkney at an earlier point on the migration route. However, a high turnover of birds could be the reason for these low values. By late May, and close to the assumed departure date, the Purple Sandpipers of the different age/sex classes had fuel indices of 24-29% (33-42% of the lean mass). This was lower than that for the high Arctic sandpipers (Knots and Sanderlings) leaving southwest Iceland for Greenland and Canada. Conclusions Our study confirmed that Purple Sandpipers do stop-over in Iceland, and the possible lower rate of fuel accumulation and smaller amount stored, compared with Knots and Sanderlings, suggests a different migration pattern.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure, biometrics and moult of migrant Purple SandpipersCalidris maritimain southwest Iceland in spring

Summers¹,

Hallgrímsson²,

Aiton³

et al. 2009

Bird Study

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show abstract

“…Stores are also often thought of as a form of energetic insurance which would enable a bird to survive a period of inclement weather when food resources were difficult to obtain. Shorebirds of the same species wintering in colder climates tend to have higher body stores (of fat and protein) than those wintering in warmer climates (Pienkowski et al 1979, Davidson et al 1986a,b, Castro et al 1992, Summers et al 1992, Piersma et al 1994, Zwarts et al 1996). On the breeding grounds, periods of severe weather can result in starvation in shorebirds (Morrison 1975) and passerines (Zumeta and Holmes 1978, Brown and Brown 2000), and stores remaining after migration may have some short‐term capability of helping birds survive poor conditions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of the fattest: body stores on migration and survival in red knots Calidris canutus islandica

Guy Morrison,

Davidson,

Wilson

2007

Journal of Avian Biology

115

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Severe summer weather in Greenland and Arctic Canada in 1972 and 1974 caused very poor breeding success and elevated adult mortality in red knots Calidris canutus islandica. We show that those individual knots that are known to have survived these summers were in better than average nutritional condition shortly before departure from their late spring staging area in west Iceland. The condition index of previously banded or subsequently recovered birds captured in Iceland was positively related to the number of summers they were known to have survived. Body stores carried from the last spring staging area to the breeding grounds appear to offer Arcticbreeding shorebirds significant selective advantages: they are used for physical transformation from migration to breeding condition, and in years when weather is difficult may enable survival after arrival on the breeding grounds.

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“…We assumed that the 5% of post-moult birds with the lowest mass divided by wing length ('ratio index'; Jakob et al 1996) represented birds that had not yet started fuelling. The slope coefficient from this regression is the value ('scaling coefficient') to which wing length needs to be raised to make it scale approximately directly with mass (Summers 1988, Summers et al 1992). We then applied a linear model, body mass against wing length of lean birds, both transformed by logarithms (Summers 1988).…”

Section: Estimation Of the Potential Flight Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this, we combined adults and immatures because they had similar wing lengths. We used the scaling coefficient and wing length to adjust the birds' mass to the equivalent body mass of a bird with the mean post-moult wing length, using the approach of Summers et al (1992). The slope coefficient from this regression is the value ('scaling coefficient') to which wing length needs to be raised to make it scale approximately directly with mass (Summers 1988, Summers et al 1992).…”

Section: Estimation Of the Potential Flight Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

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Age‐specific variation in relationship between moult and pre‐migratory fuelling in Wood SandpipersTringa glareolain southern Africa

Remisiewicz

Tree²,

Underhill

et al. 2016

Ibis

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Trans‐equatorial avian migrants tend to breed, moult and migrate – the main energy‐requiring events in their lifecycle – at different times. Little is known about the relationship between wing moult and pre‐migratory fuelling in waders on their non‐breeding grounds, where time is less constrained than during their brief high‐latitude breeding season. We determined age‐related strategies of Wood Sandpipers Tringa glareola to balance the energetic demands of primary moult against pre‐migratory fuelling in southern Africa by analysing body mass and primary moult at first capture of 1721 birds mist‐netted in 1972–96 at waterbodies in Zimbabwe. Adults moulted all their primaries in August–December, but immatures underwent a supplemental moult of varying numbers of outer primaries in December–April, close to departure. We used locally weighted linear regression to estimate trends in Wood Sandpiper body mass from 1 July to 1 May. They maintained low mass from arrival in July–September to February–early March. Adults fuelled from 10 February to 1 May at a mean rate of 0.25 g/day (sd = 0.16). Most adults (98%) began fuelling 10–75 days after completing primary moult. Immatures fuelled from 4 March to 13 April at 0.24 g/day (sd = 0.14). They used varying strategies depending on their condition: a brief gap between moult and fuelling; an overlap of these processes near departure, leading to slower fuelling; or skipping fuelling altogether and staying in southern Africa for a ‘gap year’. Immatures moulting three or five outer primaries fuelled more slowly than post‐moult birds. Immatures moulting four outer primaries started fuelling 3 weeks later but at a higher rate than did post‐moult birds of this group. In post‐moult immatures, the later they ended moult, the later and faster they fuelled. The heaviest adults and immatures using all moult patterns accumulated fuel loads of c. 50% of lean body mass, and could potentially cross 2397–4490 km to reach the Great Rift Valley in one non‐stop flight. Immatures were more flexible in the timing and extent of moult and in the timing and rate of fuelling than adults. This flexibility enables inexperienced Wood Sandpipers to cope with inter‐annual differences in feeding conditions at Africa's ephemeral inland waterbodies.

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Seasonal, size‐ and age‐related patterns in body‐mass and composition of Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima in Britain

Cited by 26 publications

References 25 publications

Population structure, biometrics and moult of migrant Purple SandpipersCalidris maritimain southwest Iceland in spring

Population structure, biometrics and moult of migrant Purple SandpipersCalidris maritimain southwest Iceland in spring

Survival of the fattest: body stores on migration and survival in red knots Calidris canutus islandica

Age‐specific variation in relationship between moult and pre‐migratory fuelling in Wood SandpipersTringa glareolain southern Africa

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