Data from: Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird
Data from: Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-09-24
Citation
Mitchell GW, Woodworth BK, Taylor PD, Norris DR. 2015. Data from: Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.82652t83Abstract
Background: Given that winds encountered on migration could theoretically double or half the energy expenditure of aerial migrants, there should be strong selection on behaviour in relation to wind conditions aloft. However, evidence suggests that juvenile songbirds are less choosey about wind conditions at departure relative to adults, potentially increasing energy expenditure during flight. To date, there has yet to be a direct comparison of flight efficiency between free-living adult and juveniles songbirds during migration in relation to wind conditions aloft, likely because of the challenges of following known aged individual songbirds during flight. We used an automated digital telemetry array to compare the flight efficiency of adult and juvenile Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) as they flew nearly 100 km during two successive stages of their fall migration; a departure flight from their breeding grounds out over the ocean and then a migratory flight along a coast. Using a multilevel path modelling framework, we evaluated the effects of age, flight stage, tailwind component, and crosswind component on flight duration and groundspeed.
Results: We found that juveniles departed under wind conditions that were less supportive relative to adults and that this resulted in juveniles taking 1.4 times longer to complete the same flight trajectories as adults. We did not find an effect of age on flight duration or groundspeed after controlling for wind conditions aloft, suggesting that both age groups were flying at similar airspeeds. We also found that groundspeeds were 1.7 times faster along the coast than over the ocean given more favourable tailwinds along the coast and because birds appeared to be climbing in altitude over the ocean, diverting some energy from horizontal to vertical movement.
Conclusions: Our results provide the first direct evidence that adult songbirds have considerably more efficient migratory flights than juveniles, and that this efficiency is driven by the selection of more supportive tailwind conditions aloft. Given the importance of wind for efficient flight, we suggest this behaviour could be adaptive in juveniles, if for example, the benefits of a more flexible departure schedule outweigh the costs of flying with less supportive winds.
Keywords
Passerculus sandwichensis,aeroecology,air speed,animal tracking,automated telemetry,avian migration,crosswinds,Env-DATA,flight costs,ground speed,migration,Movebank,Passerculus sandwichensis,radio telemetry,Savannah sparrow,songbirds,tailwinds,wind support
DOIs of related Publications
BibTex
@misc{001/1_82652t83,
title = {Data from: Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird},
author = {Mitchell, GW and Woodworth, BK and Taylor, PD and Norris, DR},
year = {2015},
URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.82652t83},
doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.82652t83},
publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}RIS
TY - DATA ID - doi:10.5441/001/1.82652t83 T1 - Data from: Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird AU - Mitchell, Greg W. AU - Woodworth, Bradley K. AU - Taylor, Philip D. AU - Norris, D. Ryan Y1 - 2015/09/24 KW - Passerculus sandwichensis KW - altitude KW - aeroecology KW - air speed KW - animal tracking KW - automated telemetry KW - avian migration KW - crosswinds KW - Env-DATA KW - flight costs KW - ground speed KW - migration KW - Movebank KW - Passerculus sandwichensis KW - radio telemetry KW - Savannah sparrow KW - songbirds KW - tailwinds KW - wind support KW - Passerculus sandwichensis PB - Movebank data repository UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.82652t83 DO - doi:10.5441/001/1.82652t83 ER -