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Barrier crossing in small avian migrants : Individual tracking reveals prolonged nocturnal flights into the day as a common migratory strategy

Adamík, Peter ; Emmenegger, Tamara LU orcid ; Briedis, Martins ; Gustafsson, Lars LU ; Henshaw, Ian ; Krist, Miloš ; Laaksonen, Toni ; Liechti, Felix ; Procházka, Petr and Salewski, Volker , et al. (2016) In Scientific Reports 6.
Abstract

Over decades it has been unclear how individual migratory songbirds cross large ecological barriers such as seas or deserts. By deploying light-level geolocators on four songbird species weighing only about 12 g, we found that these otherwise mainly nocturnal migrants seem to regularly extend their nocturnal flights into the day when crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. The proportion of the proposed diurnally flying birds gradually declined over the day with similar landing patterns in autumn and spring. The prolonged flights were slightly more frequent in spring than in autumn, suggesting tighter migratory schedules when returning to breeding sites. Often we found several patterns for barrier crossing for the same... (More)

Over decades it has been unclear how individual migratory songbirds cross large ecological barriers such as seas or deserts. By deploying light-level geolocators on four songbird species weighing only about 12 g, we found that these otherwise mainly nocturnal migrants seem to regularly extend their nocturnal flights into the day when crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. The proportion of the proposed diurnally flying birds gradually declined over the day with similar landing patterns in autumn and spring. The prolonged flights were slightly more frequent in spring than in autumn, suggesting tighter migratory schedules when returning to breeding sites. Often we found several patterns for barrier crossing for the same individual in autumn compared to the spring journey. As only a small proportion of the birds flew strictly during the night and even some individuals might have flown non-stop, we suggest that prolonged endurance flights are not an exception even in small migratory species. We emphasise an individual's ability to perform both diurnal and nocturnal migration when facing the challenge of crossing a large ecological barrier to successfully complete a migratory journey.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
in
Scientific Reports
volume
6
article number
21560
pages
9 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:26876925
  • scopus:84958211401
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/srep21560
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Funding Information: We thank H. Schmidt for providing data on migratory strategies of birds, and M. Král, J. Träff, M. Požgayová, V. Jelínek, J. Koleček, B. Meister, J. Auerswald, K. Fletcher, J. Könönen, B.B. Babu, S. Zonneveld, E. YeXiong, M. Ahola, W. Velmala, M. Flade, O. Ilucha, G. Kiljan, I. Legeyda, U. Malashevich, A. Poluda and many other volunteers for field assistance. Funding was provided by Czech Science Foundation (grant #13-06451S), Swiss Federal Office for Environment (UTF-Nr. 254, 332, 363, 400), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, O.M.H. Schmidt-Felsche Foundation, Swedish Research Council and FORMAS. Publisher Copyright: © 2016, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
id
fe1b0a9b-1365-4aa7-8f52-32e9f60fa90e
date added to LUP
2021-10-29 11:05:55
date last changed
2024-06-01 18:49:55
@article{fe1b0a9b-1365-4aa7-8f52-32e9f60fa90e,
  abstract     = {{<p>Over decades it has been unclear how individual migratory songbirds cross large ecological barriers such as seas or deserts. By deploying light-level geolocators on four songbird species weighing only about 12 g, we found that these otherwise mainly nocturnal migrants seem to regularly extend their nocturnal flights into the day when crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. The proportion of the proposed diurnally flying birds gradually declined over the day with similar landing patterns in autumn and spring. The prolonged flights were slightly more frequent in spring than in autumn, suggesting tighter migratory schedules when returning to breeding sites. Often we found several patterns for barrier crossing for the same individual in autumn compared to the spring journey. As only a small proportion of the birds flew strictly during the night and even some individuals might have flown non-stop, we suggest that prolonged endurance flights are not an exception even in small migratory species. We emphasise an individual's ability to perform both diurnal and nocturnal migration when facing the challenge of crossing a large ecological barrier to successfully complete a migratory journey.</p>}},
  author       = {{Adamík, Peter and Emmenegger, Tamara and Briedis, Martins and Gustafsson, Lars and Henshaw, Ian and Krist, Miloš and Laaksonen, Toni and Liechti, Felix and Procházka, Petr and Salewski, Volker and Hahn, Steffen}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Barrier crossing in small avian migrants : Individual tracking reveals prolonged nocturnal flights into the day as a common migratory strategy}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21560}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/srep21560}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}