The Ability of Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus to Compensate for Lost Feeding Time: Field Studies on Individually Marked Birds

Urfi, Abdul Jamil; Goss-Custard, J.D.; Durell, S. E. A. Lev. Dit

doi:10.2307/2404958

Cited by 50 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Our finding that active human disturbance, in our case from potential boat traffic, negatively impacts wading bird use of foraging sites is consistent with other waterbird studies that have demonstrated disturbance effects from human activities (e.g., shellfishing) in close proximity to foraging birds (Urfi et al 1996;Gill et al 2001; Blumstein et al 2003). At our study sites boat traffic is predominantly recreational, consisting of pleasure craft (e.g., outboard-powered boats) generally less than 8 m in length.…”

Section: Active Human Disturbancesupporting

confidence: 91%

Use of urban marine habitats by foraging wading birds

2009

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Wading birds (i.e, Ardeidae: herons, egrets, and bitterns) are a guild of waterbirds that forage in coastal habitats which in the US and Europe are often located in close proximity to urban centers. However, the use of urban marine habitats may have consequences for bird populations, as birds can be subject to stress from increased levels of passive and active human disturbance. We examined the effects of human disturbance, available foraging habitat, and prey abundance on wading bird density and species richness at 17 urban coastal sites in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island USA. The sites represented a gradient of immediately adjacent residential and commercial land use (e.g., 0.0-67.7% urban land use within a 30.5 m buffer of the sites) within an urban matrix (i.e., all sites were located within a suburban center with a population of about 85,000 people). Wading bird density (0.62±0.12 birds ha −1 ) and species richness (average 4.49±0.37 species across all sites) were not influenced by passive human disturbance as measured by the extent of urban land surrounding a site. However, wading bird density and species richness both decreased significantly as active disturbance (i.e., number of boats moored or docked upstream of the site) increased (r=−0.56, F=6.85, p=0.019 and r=−0.73, F=16.6, p=0.001, respectively). In addition, both density (r=0.72, F=16.2, p=0.001) and species richness (r=0.72, F=16.2, p=0.001) increased concomitantly with a prey index that combines the density of fish and invertebrates on which the birds feed with the amount of available shallow water foraging habitat at a site. Our results suggest that wading birds i) may not be negatively affected by urban land surrounding estuarine foraging areas in and of itself; and ii) may be Urban Ecosyst (

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Section: Active Human Disturbancesupporting

confidence: 91%

Use of urban marine habitats by foraging wading birds

2009

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“…The risk of this depends on the ability of birds to compensate afterwards by either feeding for longer or increasing their intake rate. Although oystercatchers feeding on cockles Cerastoderma edule may increase their intake rate when the time available for feeding is reduced substantially (Swennen et al 1989), mussel‐feeding oystercatchers on the Exe have not been shown to increase their intake rate after disturbance (Urfi et al 1996). Furthermore, they do not increase their rate of mussel consumption to compensate for an overwinter decline in the flesh content of individual mussels of almost 50%, even though the decline in prey quality contributes importantly to the starvation of birds (Goss‐Custard et al 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal changes in the response of oystercatchersHaematopus ostralegusto human disturbance

Stillman¹,

Goss‐Custard²

2002

Journal of Avian Biology

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The response of foraging animals to human disturbance can be considered as a trade‐off between the increased perceived predation risk of tolerating disturbance and the increased starvation risk of not feeding and avoiding disturbance. We show how the response of overwintering oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus to disturbance is related to their starvation risk of avoiding disturbance. As winter progresses, oystercatcher energy requirements increase and their feeding conditions deteriorate. To survive they spend longer feeding and so have less spare time in which to compensate for disturbance. Later in winter, birds approach a disturbance source more closely and return more quickly after a disturbance. Their behavioural response to disturbance is less when they are having more difficulty surviving and hence their starvation risk of avoiding disturbance is greater. These results have implications for studies which assume that a larger behavioural response means that a species is more vulnerable to disturbance. The opposite may be true. To more fully understand the impact of disturbance, studies should measure both behavioural responses and the ease with which animals are meeting their requirements. Conservation effort should be directed towards species which need to spend a high proportion of their time feeding, but still have a large response to disturbance.

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“…) and the capacity to compensate by foraging for longer periods may vary between individuals (Urfi et al . ). During the breeding season, human disturbance may influence nest incubation and chick rearing, and very high levels of human activity may prevent the use of suitable breeding or foraging habitat (Finney et al .…”

Section: The Threatsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A horizon scanning assessment of current and potential future threats to migratory shorebirds

Sutherland

Alves

Amano

et al. 2012

Ibis

123

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We review the conservation issues facing migratory shorebird populations that breed in temperate regions and use wetlands in the non-breeding season. Shorebirds are excellent model organisms for understanding ecological, behavioural and evolutionary processes and are often used as indicators of wetland health. A global team of experienced shorebird researchers identified 45 issues facing these shorebird populations, and divided them into three categories (natural, current anthropogenic and future issues). The natural issues included megatsunamis, volcanoes and regional climate changes, while current anthropogenic threats encompassed agricultural intensification, conversion of tidal flats and coastal wetlands by human infrastructure developments and eutrophication of coastal systems. Possible future threats to shorebirds include microplastics, new means of recreation and infectious diseases. We suggest that this review process be broadened to other taxa to aid the identification and ranking of current and future conservation actions.

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The Ability of Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus to Compensate for Lost Feeding Time: Field Studies on Individually Marked Birds

Cited by 50 publications

References 11 publications

Use of urban marine habitats by foraging wading birds

Use of urban marine habitats by foraging wading birds

Seasonal changes in the response of oystercatchersHaematopus ostralegusto human disturbance

A horizon scanning assessment of current and potential future threats to migratory shorebirds

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