Activity and migratory flights of individual free‐flying songbirds throughout the annual cycle: method and first case study

By J. Bäckman, Arne Andersson, T. Alerstam, Lykke Pedersen, Sissel Sjöberg, K. Thorup, A. P. Tøttrup. 2017

109 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We describe a method and device ( 66 (max. 73) nocturnal migratory flights (29 flights in autumn and > 37, max. 44, in spring) adding up to a total of > 434 (max. 495) flight hours. Migratory flights lasted on average 6.6 h with maximum 15.9 h. These flights were aggregated into eight travel episodes (periods of 4-11 nights when flights took place on the majority of nights). Daytime resting levels were much higher during the winter period compared to breeding and final part of spring migration. Daytime resting showed peaks during days between successive nocturnal flights across Sahara, continental Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, indicating that the bird was mostly sleeping between these long migratory flights. Annual activity and flight data for free-living songbirds will open up many new research possibilities. Main topics that can be addressed are e.g. migratory flight performance (total flight investment, numbers and characteristics of flights), timing of stationary periods, activity patterns (resting/sleep, activity level) in different phases of the annual cycle and variability in the annual activity patterns between and within individuals. (Less)

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e566f0ccbe6e1d5b3d4f5cd35c8ee735b9f5f7fd

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In Ecology

  1. B. Helm
  2. Susanne Åkesson
  3. H. Dingle

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

  1. Susanne Åkesson
  2. B. Helm

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

  1. B. Helm
  2. Susanne Åkesson

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