scholarly journals Temperature and rainfall anomalies in Africa predict timing of spring migration in trans-Saharan migratory birds

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 123-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Saino ◽  
D Rubolini ◽  
N Jonzén ◽  
T Ergon ◽  
A Montemaggiori ◽  
...  
2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 707-710
Author(s):  
Pamela Bergmann ◽  
Paul Ross

ABSTRACT A paper written for the 2001 International Oil Spill Conference (Bergmann and Russo, 2001) discussed the first-of-its-kind, wildlife-response contingency planning effort underway in the trans-boundary area, known as Dixon Entrance, between British Columbia (B.C.) in Canada and Alaska in the United States (U.S.). The paper described how this initiative was conducted within the framework of Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and United States Coast Guard (USCG) joint contingency planning in Dixon Entrance. The paper focused on activities successfully completed at that time; namely, a 1999 workshop attended by key Canadian and U.S. stakeholders, which resulted in an agreement by Canadian and U.S. wildlife resource agency representatives to develop a joint Dixon Entrance wildlife response plan focusing on migratory birds and sea otters. This paper describes how, following the workshop, a joint Canada/U.S. Dixon Entrance (CANUSDIX) wildlife response working group was established to complete this task. The resulting Canada-United States Marine Spill Pollution Contingency Plan CANUSDIX Annex-Operation Appendix: Wildlife Response Guidelines (CANUSDIX Wildlife Response Guidelines) (DOI-OEPC et al, 2003) were completed and signed by appropriate Canadian and U.S. wildlife resource agency officials in April 2003, and were then adopted by the CCG and USCG in September 2003. The paper also provides an overview of the process used by working group members and their stakeholder partners to develop the guidelines. Moreover, the paper describes: (1) factors that helped contribute to the success of the effort; (2) challenges that had to be overcome; (3) milestones that helped keep the work on track; and (4) additional unanticipated benefits. Together, this information will allow other parties in trans-boundary areas around the world to use the Dixon Entrance wildlife response guidelines, and the process undertaken to develop the document, as a model for conducting similar pre-incident planning.


The Auk ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-330
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Long ◽  
Philip C. Stouffer

Abstract Seasonal changes in food choice by migratory birds often reflect changes in relative food abundance and increased energetic demand. Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) in southeastern Louisiana are highly frugivorous during winter but forage exclusively on arthropods just prior to spring migration. We hypothesized that this switch to an exclusively arthropod diet would lead to an increase in fat reserves compared to a frugivorous diet, and that fat birds would initiate migration sooner and display more migratory activity than lean birds. We tested these hypotheses on captive Hermit Thrushes maintained on either an arthropod only diet or a mixed fruit and arthropod diet and measured changes in fat score, body mass, and nocturnal migratory activity (Zugunruhe) from February to April 2000. We found that the arthropod-only treatment led to greater body mass and greater amounts of subcutaneous fat than the mixed fruit and arthropod treatment by the third week of the experiment. Despite those differences, body mass was not correlated with intensity of Zugunruhe. We also did not find a significant difference in intensity or onset of Zugunruhe between treatments. We concluded that because Hermit Thrushes are short-distance migrants, large fat reserves are not crucial for their migration. Consequently, fruit and arthropods appear to be equivalent with respect to migratory behavior.


The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail E Frawley ◽  
Kristen J DeMoranville ◽  
Katherine M Carbeck ◽  
Lisa Trost ◽  
Amadeusz Bryła ◽  
...  

AbstractMigratory birds engage in 2 periods of endurance flight annually as they travel between summer breeding and overwintering grounds, and such endurance flights likely incur oxidative costs. These costs may differ between fall and spring migration, especially for females who must prepare for breeding and egg laying in spring. The objective of this study of a migratory bird was to test proposed hypotheses about how key components of the female’s antioxidant system differ in response to flight training in the fall and spring and to dietary antioxidant supplementation. We hand raised female European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and fed them either a diet supplemented with dietary anthocyanins or a diet without added anthocyanins. We flew females in a wind tunnel for 15 days during fall and spring migration seasons and measured over time oxidative lipid damage (d-ROMs) and 3 components of the antioxidant system: nonenzymatic antioxidant capacity (OXY), uric acid, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity. Prior to flight training, OXY and oxidative damage were lower in females during spring compared with fall, and females fed a low-antioxidant diet had consistently higher circulating uric acid. GPx activity decreased more in spring immediately after a long-duration flight. Females fed a high-antioxidant diet had a greater decrease in OXY after the 15-day flight training. Flight-trained females had higher circulating uric acid than untrained females immediately after the longest-duration flight and decreased GPx activity after the 15-day flight training. In sum, females upregulated enzymatic and nonenzymatic endogenous antioxidants in spring, and females fed a diet with less antioxidants appear to compensate by increasing circulating uric acid. Our findings emphasize the important role of dietary antioxidants for birds during migration, and similar flights in fall and spring likely represent distinct oxidative challenges in the life history of female birds.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Saino ◽  
Diego Rubolini ◽  
Jost Von Hardenberg ◽  
Roberto Ambrosini ◽  
Antonello Provenzale ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariëlle L. van Toor ◽  
Sergey Kharitonov ◽  
Saulius Švažas ◽  
Mindaugas Dagys ◽  
Erik Kleyheeg ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The timing of migration for herbivorous migratory birds is thought to coincide with spring phenology as emerging vegetation supplies them with the resources to fuel migration, and, in species with a capital breeding strategy also provides individuals with energy for use on the breeding grounds. Individuals with very long migration distances might however have to trade off between utilising optimal conditions en route and reaching the breeding grounds early, potentially leading to them overtaking spring on the way. Here, we investigate whether migration distance affects how closely individually tracked Eurasian wigeons follow spring phenology during spring migration. Methods We captured wigeons in the Netherlands and Lithuania and tracked them throughout spring migration to identify staging sites and timing of arrival. Using temperature-derived indicators of spring phenology, we investigated how maximum longitude reached and migration distance affected how closely wigeons followed spring. We further estimated the impact of tagging on wigeon migration by comparing spring migratory timing between tracked individuals and ring recovery data sets. Results Wigeons migrated to locations between 300 and 4000 km from the capture site, and migrated up to 1000 km in a single day. We found that wigeons migrating to more north-easterly locations followed spring phenology more closely, and increasingly so the greater distance they had covered during migration. Yet we also found that despite tags equalling only around 2% of individual’s body mass, individuals were on average 11–12 days slower than ring-marked individuals from the same general population. Discussion Overall, our results suggest that migratory strategy can vary dependent on migration distance within species, and even within the same migratory corridor. Individual decisions thus depend not only on environmental cues, but potentially also trade-offs made during later life-history stages.


2015 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Gómez ◽  
Valentina Gómez-Bahamón ◽  
Laura Cárdenas-Ortíz ◽  
Nicholas J. Bayly

Ornis Svecica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1–2) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Niclas Jonzén ◽  
Dario Piacentini ◽  
Arne Andersson ◽  
Alessandro Montemaggiori ◽  
Martin Stervander ◽  
...  

Some migratory birds have advanced their spring arrival to Northern Europe, possibly by increasing the speed of migration through Europe in response to increased temperature en route. In this paper we compare the phenology of spring arrival of seven trans-Saharan migrants along their migration route and test for patterns indicating that migration speed varied over the season using long-term data collected on the Italian island of Capri and at Ottenby Bird Observatory, Sweden. There was a linear relationship between median arrival dates on Capri and at Ottenby. The slope was not significantly different from one. On average, the seven species arrived 15 days later at Ottenby compared to Capri. There was a (non-significant) negative relationship between the species-specific arrival dates at Capri and the differences in median arrival dates between Capri and Ottenby, possibly indicating a tendency towards faster migration through Europe later in the season. To what extent different species are able to speed up their migration to benefit from the advancement of spring events is unknown.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (29) ◽  
pp. 17056-17062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgen Haest ◽  
Ommo Hüppop ◽  
Franz Bairlein

Climate change causes changes in the timing of life cycle events across all trophic groups. Spring phenology has mostly advanced, but large, unexplained, variations are present between and within species. Each spring, migratory birds travel tens to tens of thousands of kilometers from their wintering to their breeding grounds. For most populations, large uncertainties remain on their exact locations outside the breeding area, and the time spent there or during migration. Assessing climate (change) effects on avian migration phenology has consequently been difficult due to spatial and temporal uncertainties in the weather potentially affecting migration timing. Here, we show for six trans-Saharan long-distance migrants that weather at the wintering and stopover grounds almost entirely (∼80%) explains interannual variation in spring migration phenology. Importantly, our spatiotemporal approach also allows for the systematic exclusion of influences at other locations and times. While increased spring temperatures did contribute strongly to the observed spring migration advancements over the 55-y study period, improvements in wind conditions, especially in the Maghreb and Mediterranean, have allowed even stronger advancements. Flexibility in spring migration timing of long-distance migrants to exogenous factors has been consistently underestimated due to mismatches in space, scale, time, and weather variable type.


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