Space use and flight attributes of breeding Lesser Kestrels <i>Falco naumanni</i> revealed by GPS tracking

Gustin, Marco; Giglio, Giuseppe; Pellegrino, Stefania Caterina; Frassanito, Annagrazia; Ferrarini, Alessandro

doi:10.1080/00063657.2017.1314449

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The GPS-logger technology provides valuable information on for instance flight distances and home-range sizes e.g. [ 43 ] and we have here shown the value of deploying such devices on a species as small as a Starling for the first time, which illustrates the potential for similar studies on a larger number of species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) increasingly select for grazed areas with increasing distance-to-nest

Fox

Thellesen²,

Dalby

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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The abundant and widespread Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is currently declining across much of Europe due to landscape changes caused by agricultural intensification. The proximate mechanisms causing adverse effects to breeding Starlings are unclear, hampering our ability to implement cost-efficient agri-environmental schemes to restore populations to former levels. This study aimed to show how this central foraging farmland bird uses and selects land cover types in general and how use of foraging habitat changes in relation to distance from the nest. We attached GPS-loggers to 17 breeding Starlings at a Danish dairy cattle farm in 2015 and 2016 and analysed their use of different land cover types as a function of distance intervals from the nest and their relative availability. As expected for a central place forager, Starlings increasingly avoided potential foraging areas with greater distance-to-nest: areas ≥ 500 m were selected > 100 times less frequently than areas within 100 m. On average, Starlings selected the land cover category Grazed most frequently, followed by Short Grass, Bare Ground, Meadow and Winter Crops. Starlings compensated for elevated travel costs by showing increasing habitat selection the further they foraged from the nest. Our results highlight the importance of Grazed foraging habitats close to the nest site of breeding Starlings. The ecological capacity of intensively managed farmlands for insectivorous birds like the Starling is decreasing through conversion of the most strongly selected land cover type (Grazed) to the least selected (Winter Crops) which may be further exacerbated through spatial segregation of foraging and breeding habitats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) increasingly select for grazed areas with increasing distance-to-nest

Fox

Thellesen²,

Dalby

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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“…We presented a method to detect reproductive events and estimate their fate from recursive movement patterns of central place foragers. As case studies, we applied our method to identify nest-site locations and estimate the fate of breeding attempts from GPS- tracking data for three avian species differing in breeding behavior and ecology [22,28,35]. To our knowledge, this is the first time the analysis of movement recursions is applied to infer reproduction; more broadly, ours is also among the first attempts to infer the reproductive component of fitness from telemetry data (but see [9,25,50]), and to our knowledge, the first applied to birds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of movement recursions to detect reproductive events and estimate their fate in central place foragers

et al. 2020

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Background: Recursive movement patterns have been used to detect behavioral structure within individual movement trajectories in the context of foraging ecology, home-ranging behavior, and predator avoidance. Some animals exhibit movement recursions to locations that are tied to reproductive functions, including nests and dens; while existing literature recognizes that, no method is currently available to explicitly target different types of revisited locations. Moreover, the temporal persistence of recursive movements to a breeding location can carry information regarding the fate of breeding attempts, but it has never been used as a metric to quantify recursive movement patterns. Here, we introduce a method to locate breeding attempts and estimate their fate from GPStracking data of central place foragers. We tested the performance of our method in three bird species differing in breeding ecology (wood stork (Mycteria americana), lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)) and implemented it in the R package 'nestR'. Methods: We identified breeding sites based on the analysis of recursive movements within individual tracks. Using trajectories with known breeding attempts, we estimated a set of species-specific criteria for the identification of nest sites, which we further validated using non-reproductive individuals as controls. We then estimated individual nest survival as a binary measure of reproductive fate (success, corresponding to fledging of at least one chick, or failure) from nest-site revisitation histories during breeding attempts, using a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach that accounted for temporally variable revisitation patterns, probability of visit detection, and missing data. Results: Across the three species, positive predictive value of the nest-site detection algorithm varied between 87 and 100% and sensitivity between 88 and 92%, and we correctly estimated the fate of 86-100% breeding attempts.

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“…Despite these differences between the colony located beside the thermosolar power plant and the other in a natural environment, both the home ranges of one and another are smaller than or similar to those observed in other European colonies. Using the same methodology and considering the 95% kernel as a representative approach to area size, Gustin et al (2017) recorded in Italy home ranges of 41.4 and 46.5 km 2 in two colonies with a partially suitable landscape composed of non-irrigated arable lands and pseudo-steppes. There Portugal the estimated home ranges in pseudo-steppes characterized by traditional extensive cereal cultivation were lower than 20 km 2 , whereas they were significant larger, around 144 km 2 , in unsuitable habitat with abandoned cultivations and forested areas (Catry et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We calculated the 95%, 75% and 50% fixed kernels using the Animal Movement extension for ArcView 3.2 (Hooge and Eichenlaub 1997) and the least squares cross-validation procedure to calculate the smoothing parameter H (Silverman 1986). Fixed kernel estimators are widely used in the literature and allow comparison with similar studies (Worton 1989;Mellone et al 2011;Limiñana et al 2012;Gustin et al 2017). We also calculated the 100% minimum convex polygon (MCP) for each breeding area of each Lesser Kestrel.…”

Section: Distance To the Nest And Home Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

How can the home range of the Lesser Kestrel be affected by a large civil infrastructure?

2019

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Background: The loss of traditional agropastoral systems, with the consequent reduction of foraging habitats and prey availability, is one of the main causes for the fast decline of Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni). To promote the conservation of the Lesser Kestrel and their habitats, here we studied the foraging activities patterns of this species during the breeding season. Methods: Between 2016 and 2017, we captured and tagged 24 individuals with GPS dataloggers of two colonies in Villena (eastern Spain) with the goals of estimating the home range sizes of males and females, evaluating the differences in spatial ecology between two colonies located in different environments: natural and beside a thermosolar power plant, and investigating habitat selection. Results: Considering the distances before July 15, date until which it can be assured that the chicks remain in the nest in our colonies, there were significant differences with the distances to the nest in relation to the colony of the individuals: Lesser Kestrels from the thermosolar power plant colony had a greater average distance. The average size of home range areas was 13.37 km 2 according to 95% kernel, and there were also significant differences in relation to colony: the individuals from the thermosolar power plant colony used a larger area (22.03 ± 4.07 km 2) than those from the other colony (9.66 ± 7.68 km 2). Birds showed preference for non-irrigated arable lands and pastures. Conclusions: Despite the differences between the two colonies, the home ranges of both are smaller or similar to those observed in other European colonies. This suggests that Lesser Kestrels continue to have adequate habitats and a good availability of prey. Therefore, the extension and proximity of the plant does not imply a great alteration, which highlights the importance of maintaining the rest of the territory in good conditions to minimize the impact.

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Space use and flight attributes of breeding Lesser Kestrels Falco naumanni revealed by GPS tracking

Cited by 17 publications

References 10 publications

Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) increasingly select for grazed areas with increasing distance-to-nest

Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) increasingly select for grazed areas with increasing distance-to-nest

Analysis of movement recursions to detect reproductive events and estimate their fate in central place foragers

How can the home range of the Lesser Kestrel be affected by a large civil infrastructure?

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