The level of water in the river flowing through the breeding site shapes the body condition of a lekking bird—the Great Snipe Gallinago media

Witkowska, Marta; Pinchuk, Pavel; Meissner, Włodzimierz; Karlionova, Natalia; Zuzanna, Marynkiewicz,

doi:10.1007/s10336-022-01966-5

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Therefore, the occurrence of the Wood Snipe seemed to be largely driven by soil conditions and food density rather than vegetation variables. This reflects similar findings for the breeding Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and Great Snipe (G. media), in which habitat selection and body condition are associated with certain soil conditions and higher food availability (Green et al 1990, Korniluk et al 2021, Witkowska et al 2022. However, unlike the Great Snipe, we did not find strong evidence of Wood Snipe selecting habitat with moderate vegetation height and density to avoid potential predators (Løfaldli et al 1992), even though predation attempts by raptors were observed in the field.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

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Habitat selection and population status of breeding Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in an alpine meadow in Sichuan, China

Ren

Zhang²,

Huang³

et al. 2023

Bird Conservation International

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Summary The Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola is one of the least known shorebird species, and its habitat associations are very poorly understood. Here we provide the first assessment of the habitat use of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season. Between May and July 2021 at a 4-km2 alpine meadow in Sichuan province, China, we conducted population surveys and behavioural observations to identify sites where breeding Wood Snipe occurred and foraged. We quantified the habitat characteristics and food resource availability of these sites and compared them with randomly selected “background” sites. Comparison between 34 occurrence sites and 25 background sites indicated that during the breeding season, Wood Snipes are not distributed evenly across alpine meadow habitats, but preferred habitats in the lower part (3,378–3,624 m) of the alpine meadow with intermediate levels of soil moisture. In addition, comparison between 17 foraging sites and 24 background sites showed that the Wood Snipe tended to forage at sites with higher soil fauna abundance. We found weak evidence for denser vegetation cover at its height and no evidence for other biotic habitat variables such as vegetation composition or other abiotic habitat variables such as slope, soil penetrability, or disturbance level to influence Wood Snipe habitat associations. Our results suggest that the actual distribution range of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season may be smaller than expected from the extent of apparently suitable habitat. We advise caution in evaluating the potential habitat availability and distribution of the Wood Snipe, and call for further research to better understand the ecology of this rare species to inform its conservation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Special thanks to Tong Mu for helpful discussions and much advice provided throughout the period of our work. This work was supported by the Zhilan Foundation (2021010291B, 2021-2022), Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE Foundation, 2021-2022, and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Small Grant Funds (2021-2022).…”

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confidence: 99%

Habitat selection and population status of breeding Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in an alpine meadow in Sichuan, China

Ren

Zhang²,

Huang³

et al. 2023

Bird Conservation International

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“…Reasons for lek switching may also incorporate factors operating outside the strict display arena. Male mating success is related to display intensity (Höglund & Lundberg 1987, Höglund & Robertson 1990) but mating displays are costly from an energy-expenditure point of view, with birds losing 5–7% of their body mass each night (Höglund et al 1992) but also as the breeding season progressed (Witkowska et al 2022). Males therefore need to replenish energy reserves during daily foraging, preferably in close proximity to the lek, with the vast majority of tracking records made within 500 m of the lek itself and a preference to forage close to the lek (Korniluk et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in water levels in Great Snipe habitats have been found to correlate with the number of males attending leks (M. Grygoruk et al, unpubl.) and changes in their body condition (Witkowska et al 2022). Finding an alternative lek with better foraging grounds in close proximity, allowing more efficient replenishment of energy reserves, should therefore contribute to improved male mating success.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intra-Seasonal Lek Changes of Great Snipe Gallinago media Males in the Northeast of Poland

Korniluk,

Chylarecki

2023

Acta Ornithologica

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In bird species with a lek mating system, male mating success is usually correlated with time spent at the lek, suggesting strong selection for lek attendance. We studied the lekking of Great Snipe Gallinago media males over 5 breeding seasons in Poland and found that, in apparent contradiction, 75% of males changed leks, often several times, within a single breeding season. GPS-tagged individuals tracked for an average of 31 days visited up to 9 different leks, often visiting 2–3 leks in quick succession within a few hours. Transitions between leks were entirely nocturnal, peaking before midnight. The majority of males that changed leks moved to sites within 50 km of the original lek, but 10% of males dispersed more than 100 km. Lek-switching males typically made several transitions between leks during the breeding season (median = 4), with most mobile birds changing display sites more than 20 times. Lek-switching probabilities showed seasonal variation, with no males changing leks early in the breeding season and frequent changes thereafter. The daily probability of lek change showed large inter-individual variation, allowing two groups of males to be distinguished, those who never or rarely changed leks (mean daily probability of lek change 0.02) and those who frequently changed leks (mean daily probability of lek change 0.23). This type of heterogeneity in male lekking behaviour is consistent with the hot-shot scenario of lek evolution. Here, lekking males with low mating chances should benefit from lek-switching — in contrast to top-ranking males — because changing display site may allow them to find leks with higher mating chances. Furthermore, regardless of its immediate success or failure, lek-switching can be seen as a form of prospecting behaviour that will pay off in future breeding seasons. Consistent with this, many of our lek-switching males moved in a way that suggests informed dispersal. The prevalence of intraseasonal lek switching in different Great Snipe populations across Europe should be assessed using the modern tracking devices, as this behaviour is likely to be much more widespread than reported in many previous studies.

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“…Unfortunately, we lack knowledge about similar details of migration strategy and other biological aspects in females, as there is an existing disproportion of research, with most studies focused on males' biology, especially in case of the lowland population (Korniluk et al 2020, Witkowska et al 2022, 2023, Korniluk & Chylarecki 2023. The pre-migratory processes conducted before departure to wintering grounds, such as initiation of moult of flight feathers and fuelling for long-distance, southward migratory flight were not yet investigated both in females and males of this species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interplay between moult of flight feathers and fuelling conducted on the breeding grounds of the Great SnipeGallinago mediafrom the eastern European, lowland population

Witkowska,

Korniluk,

Pinchuk

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The Great Snipe as a long-distant migrant wintering in Africa, faces the challenge of accumulating sufficient energy reserves before the departure from European breeding grounds. Despite possible trade-offs in resource allocation, this species additionally initiates moult of flight feathers before southward migration. Here we discuss the strategy of flight feather moult and fuelling, exploring their scheduling, constrained by the timing of breeding and departure for female and male Great Snipes from the European lowland population. We found significant intrasexual differences in both moult initiation date and moult duration. Males start flight feather replacement more than two weeks earlier and moult faster compared to females. However, neither sex completed this process on breeding grounds before the migration, as late in the season all males and half of the females had suspended their primary moult, with the remaining females not moulting at all. Moult of secondaries occurred exceptionally in the studied population. We observed a non-linear energetic stores gain in the studied period, where both sexes maintained a stable and low body condition until the end of July, coinciding with the primary moulting period. Subsequently, there was an increase in body condition, of approximately 1% of the lean body mass per day, indicating a shift towards fuelling for migratory flight. The overlap between stages of maintaining a stable and low body condition and moulting suggests a resource allocation towards feather growth before initiating fuelling. Our study describes moult strategy in Great Snipe conducted on their breeding grounds, highlighting the intrasexual differences, likely resulting from different parental duties of males and females of this lekking species.

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The level of water in the river flowing through the breeding site shapes the body condition of a lekking bird—the Great Snipe Gallinago media

Cited by 11 publications

References 65 publications

Habitat selection and population status of breeding Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in an alpine meadow in Sichuan, China

Habitat selection and population status of breeding Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola in an alpine meadow in Sichuan, China

Intra-Seasonal Lek Changes of Great Snipe Gallinago media Males in the Northeast of Poland

The interplay between moult of flight feathers and fuelling conducted on the breeding grounds of the Great SnipeGallinago mediafrom the eastern European, lowland population

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