Increased Stopover Duration and Low Body Condition of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) at an Autumn Stopover Site.

Anouschka R. Hof,Bernice Goffin,Marcial Felgueiras

doi:10.3390/ani10122208

Abstract

Simple SummaryMany bird species that migrate long distances are in decline partly because of environmental changes, such as climate change or land-use changes. Although much is already known on the effects of environmental change on birds that are on their spring migration or on their breeding grounds, little is known with regard to possible negative effects on birds that are on their autumn migration and visiting so-called stopover sites on their way to their wintering grounds. These stopover sites are vital for birds to refuel, and a potential deteriorating quality of the stopover sites may lead to individuals dying during migration. We investigated the impacts of local environmental conditions on the migration strategy and body condition of the Pied Flycatcher at an autumn migration stopover site using long-term ringing data and local environmental conditions. We found that although birds arrived and departed the stopover site around the same time over the years, the body condition of the individuals caught decreased, and the length of their stay at the stopover site increased. This suggests that conditions at the stopover site during the autumn migration period have deteriorated over time which may lead to the death of more birds during autumn migration.Many long-distance migratory bird species are in decline, of which environmental changes, such as climate change and land-use changes, are thought to be important drivers. The effects of environmental change on the migration of these birds have often been studied during spring migration. Fewer studies have explored the impacts of environmental change on autumn migration, especially at stopover sites. However, stopover sites are important, as the quality of these sites is expected to change over time. We investigated impacts of local environmental conditions on the migration strategy and body condition of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) at an autumn migration stopover site using long-term ringing data (1996–2018) and local environmental conditions. We found that although the arrival and departure dates of birds at the stopover site remained unchanged, the body condition (fat score) of the individuals caught decreased, and the stopover duration increased. This suggests that conditions at the stopover site during the autumn migration period have deteriorated over time. This study emphasizes the importance of suitable stopover sites for migratory birds and stresses that changes in environmental conditions during the autumn migration period may be contributing to the current decline in long-distance migratory passerines.

Highlights

Migration is a common strategy in birds that have to deal with seasonal variation in resource availability
Analyses showed that there was no change in the number of individuals caught over the years (t = −1.27, df = 1, p = 0.22), and there was no significant relation between the number of individuals caught over the years and any of the local environmental variables
The arrival date of Pied Flycatchers at the stopover site did not advance over the years either, which is in contrast with findings from Cotton [24] and Jenni and Kéry [25], who investigated a wide array of migrant species and found that long distance migrants wintering south of the Sahara had generally advanced their autumn migration because of changing climate in the Sahel region [25] and in a race to acquire a high quality wintering territory [47,48]

Summary

Introduction

Migration is a common strategy in birds that have to deal with seasonal variation in resource availability. By migrating to temperate regions in spring, birds can exploit the high food availability there to raise offspring as well as avoid the higher nest predation risk in tropical regions [1,2,3]. Migration is a risky strategy; it has been shown for several bird species, especially for passerines, that mortality is relatively high during migration [4,5,6,7]. Migration costs a lot of energy, and birds need to accumulate a large amount of fat reserves in order to complete their migration successfully [8]. During migration, many bird species will regularly stop over at suitable sites in order to replenish these fat reserves [9,10,11]. Studies on mortality at stopover sites are scarce, it is believed that the quality of stopover sites is an important factor in determining the survival rate of migrating birds [6,12]

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