Data from: Study "Vultures Acopian Center USA GPS" (2003-2021)

Bildstein KL, Barber D, Bechard MJ, Graña Grilli M, Therrien J. 2021. Data from: Study "Vultures Acopian Center USA GPS" (2003-2021). Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2

Abstract

Background: Migrating birds experience weather conditions that change with time, which affect their decision to stop or resume migration. Soaring migrants are especially sensitive to changing weather conditions because they rely on the availability of environmental updrafts to subsidize flight. The timescale that local weather conditions change over is on the order of hours, while stopovers are studied at the daily scale, creating a temporal mismatch. Methods: We used GPS satellite tracking data from four migratory Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) populations, paired with local weather data, to determine if the decision to stopover by migrating Turkey Vultures was in response to changing local weather conditions. We analyzed 174 migrations of 34 individuals from 2006 to 2019 and identified 589 stopovers based on variance of first passage times. We also investigated if the extent of movement activity correlated with average weather conditions experienced during a stopover, and report general patterns of stopover use by Turkey Vultures between seasons and across populations. Results: Stopover duration ranged from 2 h to more than 11 days, with 51 % of stopovers lasting < 24 h. Turkey Vultures began stopovers immediately in response to changes in weather variables that did not favor thermal soaring (e.g., increasing precipitation fraction and decreasing thermal updraft velocity) and their departure from stopovers was associated with improvements in weather that favored thermal development. During stopovers, proportion of activity was negatively associated with precipitation but was positively associated with temperature and thermal updraft velocity. Conclusions: The rapid response of migrating Turkey Vultures to changing weather conditions indicates weather-avoidance is one of the major functions of their stopover use. During stopovers, however, the positive relationship between proportion of movement activity and conditions that promote thermal development suggests not all stopovers are used for weather-avoidance. Our results show that birds are capable of responding rapidly to their environment; therefore, for studies interested in external drivers of weather-related stopovers, it is essential that stopovers be identified at fine temporal scales.

Keywords

Cathartes aura,Coragyps atratus,animal tracking,avian migration,scavengers,black vulture,Cathartes aura,Coragyps atratus,Env-DATA,satellite telemetry,turkey vultures

Taxa

Taxon

Cathartes aura

Turkey Vulture

Taxon

Coragyps atratus

Black Vulture

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00274-6

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.1306

BibTex

@misc{001/1_f3qt46r2,
  title = {Data from: Study "Vultures Acopian Center USA GPS" (2003-2021)},
  author = {Bildstein, KL and Barber, D and Bechard, MJ and Graña, Grilli, M and Therrien, J},
  year = {2021},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2
T1  - Data from: Study "Vultures Acopian Center USA GPS" (2003-2021)
AU  - Bildstein, Keith L.
AU  - Barber, David
AU  - Bechard, Marc J.
AU  - Graña Grilli, Maricel
AU  - Therrien, Jean-François
Y1  - 2021/12/29
KW  - Cathartes aura
KW  - animal movement
KW  - Coragyps atratus
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - avian migration
KW  - scavengers
KW  - black vulture
KW  - Cathartes aura
KW  - Coragyps atratus
KW  - Env-DATA
KW  - satellite telemetry
KW  - turkey vultures
KW  - Cathartes aura
KW  - Coragyps atratus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.f3qt46r2
ER  -

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