Patterns of Seasonal Abundance and Social Segregation in Inland and Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrows in a Delaware Tidal Marsh

Abstract

Abstract. The Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana nigrescens) breeds in coastal marshes of the mid-Atlantic United States. During the nonbreeding season, these marshes are occupied by this subspecies and the two interior-breeding subspecies M. g. georgiana and M. g. ericrypta (collectively, interior Swamp Sparrows). From September to May, 2005–2006 and 2007–2008, we surveyed marshes in which nigrescens breeds; >90% of these birds had been color-banded by the end of the previous breeding season. This allowed us to determine the nonbreeding occupancy of the breeding site by individuals that bred locally, Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrows that did not breed there, and interior Swamp Sparrows. Locally breeding birds disappeared from the breeding site by mid-October, although nonlocal nigrescens occupied it from October to late November. Locally breeding birds reappeared in April without any pulse of migration of nigrescens. Interior-breeding sparrows were abundant in the autumn and appeared in smaller...