Latitudinal Variation in Female Local Return Rate in the Philopatric Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

Abstract

Abstract Philopatry and dispersal distances of female Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) are presented for European populations using data from 25 breeding areas from 40 to 70°N. Female annual survival probabilities according to capture–recapture models were similar in two study areas in central Spain (45 and 52%). The present study shows that survival is underestimated by using annual local return rate in one of the two breeding populations under study in central Spain. In southern and central Europe, females were found to return equally regularly to their breeding areas, whereas in northern Europe (latitude >60°N) females returned at lower rates. I did not find that median dispersal distance varied among sites, nor was breeding distance related to locate survival rate. Therefore, the present study suggests that the decline in between-year local return rate of female Pied Flycatchers with increasing latitude over Europe may be more probably caused by differences in mortality than by geographical differ...