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Variation in songbird migratory behavior offers clues about adaptability to environmental change

  • Global change ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

For seasonally migrating birds, aspects of migratory behavior, such as the use of temperate versus tropical wintering areas, may influence their ability to respond to environmental change. Here, we infer potential flexibility in songbird migration from variation in two alternative stopover behaviors. Hierarchical Bayesian mark–recapture modeling was used to quantify stopover decisions over 19 years for four temperate and four tropical migratory species at a stopover site in southern Canada. Short-distance temperate migrants exhibited higher variability in behavior and greater responses to local weather than longer-distance tropical migrants, as measured by transience (the proportion of birds stopping <24 h, i.e. seeking brief sanctuary or subsequently relocating) and departure (re-initiation of migration by birds that stopped over for >24 h). In contrast to many previous works on climate–migration associations, annual variation in stopover behavior did not show strong links to broad-scale climatic fluctuations for either temperate or tropical migrants, nor was there any indication of directional changes in stopover behavior over the past two decades. In addition to suggesting that migratory songbirds—particularly tropical-wintering species—may face increasing threats with future climatic variability, our study highlights the potential importance of flexibility in en-route behavior for resilience to environmental change.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to the staff and volunteers of Long Point Bird Observatory, the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, and Bird Studies Canada for collecting and providing the migration monitoring data. Funding was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Killam Trusts scholarships to A.M.C., NSERC and Mitchell scholarships to S.A.M., and NSERC grants to J.M.F. and P.D.T. Thank you to Simon Bonner and Ian Jonsen for help developing the model, Cóilín Minto and Trevor Davies for additional statistical advice, and Charles Francis, Dylan Fraser, Andy Horn, Marty Leonard, and Ian McLaren for discussions and comments on previous drafts.

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  1. Anna M. Calvert

    Present address: , 4560 av. Mayfair, Montreal, QC, H4B 2E5, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4J1, Canada

    Anna M. Calvert & Sandra J. Walde

  2. Bird Studies Canada Chair of Ornithology, Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, B4P 2R6, Canada

    Anna M. Calvert & Philip D. Taylor

  3. Bird Studies Canada (Long Point Bird Observatory), 115 Front St, PO Box 160, Port Rowan, ON, N0E 1M0, Canada

    Stuart A. Mackenzie

  4. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 3J5, Canada

    Joanna Mills Flemming

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Communicated by Hannu Pöysä.

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Calvert, A.M., Mackenzie, S.A., Flemming, J.M. et al. Variation in songbird migratory behavior offers clues about adaptability to environmental change. Oecologia 168, 849–861 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2119-5

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