Abstract
The energy supply of food available at stopover sites plays an important role in the life cycle of migratory birds. The Yellow River National Wetland in Baotou, China, is an essential migration station and a source of energy for migratory birds as it is located at an important intersection between East Asian/Australian and Central Asian flyways. From February to may 2020, we measured diet composition and energy content of whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) by fecal micro-tissue analysis to understand their use of the stopover site and inform conservation. The following results were obtained: (1) whooper swans mainly fed on nine species of plants belonging to four families, including corn (Zea mays), reeds (Phragmites australis), and Suaeda (Suaeda glauca), which is related to the availability of local crops and abundance of plants. (2) The energy provided by crops to whooper swans was significantly higher than that of the most abundant plants in wetlands. Zea mays was the most consumed crop, and other abundant wetland plants played complementary roles. (3) The daily energy intake of whooper swans was 1393.11 kJ, which was considerably higher than their daily energy consumption. This suggested that the wetlands and the surrounding farmlands provide energy for the whooper swans to continue their migration. In order to protect migratory whooper swans, protection of important refuelling areas such as our study site should be implemented to provide sufficient energy supplies for continuing migration.
Highlights
Wetlands are important ecological systems that aid in preventing floods and droughts, purifying water quality, and regulating climate [1]
To clarify the difference in energy provided by various plants to the whooper swan diet, principal components analysis (PCA) analysis was performed on the energy values of the nine most abundant plants in the
By studying wintering home range and habitat, Jia et al (2019) found that whooper swans mainly feed on reeds and cattails during the early stage of overwintering in Sanmenxia Wetland, China [26]
Summary
Wetlands are important ecological systems that aid in preventing floods and droughts, purifying water quality, and regulating climate [1]. Waterbirds typically depend on wetlands for their abundant food availability and habitat suitability [2]. Abundance and distribution of waterbirds can reflect the structure and functions of wetlands, making them important bioindicators for wetland health [3]. Wetlands often act as stopover sites that link the breeding grounds with the wintering grounds for migratory birds.
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