Long-term changes in autumn migration timing of Garden Warblers Sylvia borin at the southern Baltic coast in response to spring, summer and autumn temperatures

Abstract

Many migrant European birds have been departing their breeding grounds earlier in recent decades in response to rising temperatures from climate change. We examined long-term changes in the autumn migration timing of immature Garden Warblers using data from ringing station Bukowo-Kopań on the Polish Baltic coast in 1967–2018. We calculated an Annual Anomaly (AA) of migration and the dates when 10%, 50% and 90% of migrating birds were caught at each station. We modelled AA and the dates of these percentiles of passage for each station against the year and bi-monthly spring, summer and autumn temperatures as explanatory variables in multiple linear regression models. The overall passage (AA) of immature Garden Warblers advanced by 7 days and the dates of the 50th and 90th passage percentiles advanced by 6–11 days. Overall passage, and dates for 50% of passage occurred later the higher summer temperatures rose in Finland. We suggest favourable foraging conditions in warm summers at these breeding grounds and at first stopover sites delayed the passage because these inexperienced birds took advantage of the conditions to accumulate fuel before migrating south. The overall passage, and the dates of 10%, 50% and 90% of autumn passage occurred the earlier the higher were spring temperatures on spring migration route in Italy, and the higher were mean summer temperatures at breeding grounds in southern Sweden and Norway. We suggest a trans-generation carry-over effect, as warm springs encourage early arrival and nesting of returning adults, thus earlier broods and hatching of juveniles, which also grow faster in warm summers. These effects enable immatures to migrate earlier in autumn after a warm breeding season. The long-term increase in Europe’s spring and summer temperatures thus help explain the shift in Garden Warblers’ migration timing.