Abstract
Common cuckoos Cuculus canorus are obligate nest parasites yet young birds reach their distant, species-specific wintering grounds without being able to rely on guidance from experienced conspecifics – in fact they never meet their parents. Naïve marine animals use an inherited navigational map during migration but in inexperienced terrestrial animal migrants unequivocal evidence of navigation is lacking. We present satellite tracking data on common cuckoos experimentally displaced 1,800 km eastward from Rybachy to Kazan. After displacement, both young and adult travelled similarly towards the route of non-displaced control birds. The tracking data demonstrate the potential for young common cuckoos to return to the species-specific migration route after displacement, a response so far reported exclusively in experienced birds. Our results indicate that an inherited map allows first-time migrating cuckoos to locate suitable wintering grounds. This is in contrast to previous studies of solitary terrestrial bird migrants but similar to that reported from the marine environment.
Highlights
Common cuckoos Cuculus canorus are obligate nest parasites yet young birds reach their distant, species-specific wintering grounds without being able to rely on guidance from experienced conspecifics – they never meet their parents
In the marine environment, inexperienced young of several species that travel independent of adults, including turtles[6], salmon[7] and eels[8], are shown to rely on an inherited navigational map based on geomagnetic information[9]
Our results provide new insights into the migratory programme that brings naïve parasitic cuckoos to their wintering grounds for the first time
Summary
Common cuckoos Cuculus canorus are obligate nest parasites yet young birds reach their distant, species-specific wintering grounds without being able to rely on guidance from experienced conspecifics – they never meet their parents. Cage studies have shown that the direction is followed over an innately controlled period of time, providing first-time migrants with direction and distance[15] With experience, this programme develops into a goal-area navigation programme normally allowing the birds to pinpoint at least their breeding and winter grounds even from unfamiliar areas[15]. This programme develops into a goal-area navigation programme normally allowing the birds to pinpoint at least their breeding and winter grounds even from unfamiliar areas[15] Such an ability has been well documented in adult birds as shown by lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus[20] and adult common cuckoos[21] returning to the normal migration route after long-distance displacements of 1,080 and 2,500 km, respectively, though with marked inter-individual flexibility in route and timing. Experiments by Åkesson et al.[25] indicate that juvenile white-crowned sparrows Zonothricia leucophrys may be able to correct for displacements and both wind-displaced and experimentally displaced birds on the Faroe Islands showed compensatory responses[26]
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