Experimental effects of habitat type on the movement ecology and stopover duration of spring migrant Northern Waterthrushes (Parkesia noveboracensis)

摘要: Long-distance migratory animals typically stop-over between movements to rest and refuel. In species lacking stopover site fidelity, including most songbirds, timely arrival breeding areas with sufficient energy stores for reproduction requires that migrants rapidly locate suitable habitat in unfamiliar landscapes. Few studies have examined movement ecology such during stopover, even fewer addressed how these adjust behaviors response encountering preferred or non-preferred habitats. We experimentally translocated spring transient Northern Waterthrushes (Parkesia noveboracensis) (bottomland) (upland) forest habitats characterized subsequent fine-scale duration using radiotelemetry. Minimum averaged 4.1 days was 1.5 longer bottomland-released birds than upland-released birds. decreased by 1.4 per week over the period. For birds, respectively, maximum distance moved from release point 635 ± 58 m 326 51 on day of 773 109 504 83 following day. Upland-released individuals traveled nearly twice as far 1 Upon reaching bottomland within 2.0 0.3 h release, similar Cumulatively, results indicate initial exploratory were facultative dependent waterthrushes can successfully a heterogeneous landscape at spatial scales we investigated.