Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Thomas O Mérő,Antun Žuljević,Katalin Varga,Szabolcs Lengyel

doi:10.5751/ace-01571-150122

Abstract

Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Highlights

How animals choose their habitats is a central question in ecology and conservation, and birds provide probably the best model system to study animal habitat choice
Long-winged individuals in both sexes preferred habitats with stable water and avoided small canals, longer-winged males preferred large canals with little or no management, whereas long-winged females preferred medium-sized canals with some management. These results provide some support for intersexual niche segregation, it is possible that long-winged females avoid large canals, in which nest parasitism by Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) is frequent, and/or prefer managed, sparse reed beds with better maneuverability for foraging
Bill morphology has been central in numerous studies of habitat choice, resource use, and niche partitioning in birds (Grenier and Greenberg 2005, Duijns et al 2014), less attention has been paid to the hypothesis that habitat choice may depend on wing morphology (Vanhooydonck et al 2009, Saino et al 2017)

Summary

Introduction

How animals choose their habitats is a central question in ecology and conservation, and birds provide probably the best model system to study animal habitat choice. The relationship between wing morphology and environment/habitat remains poorly understood because selection on wing morphology depends on annual variation in weather and related changes in the environment (Vanhooydonck et al 2009), on ecological factors such as primary production and habitat structural diversity (Saino et al 2017), and on the quality, age, and sex of the individuals (Fernández and Lank 2007). Females of the Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) hunt larger, pigeon-sized prey, whereas males hunt smaller-sized prey, the two sexes exploit different ecological niches (Newton 1986). Sex-related differences in habitat preference in birds have been studied mostly during the nonbreeding period. In the polygynous Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis), males prefer habitats associated with low-intensity human activity, whereas females prefer undisturbed habitats (Gray et al 2009)

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