Geographic Origins and Timing of Fall Migration of the Veery in Northern Colombia

Abstract

Abstract. Establishing migratory connectivity between migratory birds' breeding, wintering, and stopover sites is an important component of their effective conservation and management. For neotropical migrants, geographic origins and migration patterns have been poorly documented. During fall migration of 2009, we identified geographic origins of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens) at stopover sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, northern Colombia, by analyzing stable hydrogen isotopes (δD) in feathers and from values expected from a long-term isoscape for North America of δD in feathers. We evaluated the importance of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the Veery on the basis of the birds' geographic origins and assessed the relationship between timing of migration and geographic origins and age. We estimated that 100 of the 197 individuals captured originated from the southwest and/or the northeast regions of their breeding range, but applying abundance in the breeding range as an informed prior proba...