Sympatrically-breeding congeneric seabirds (Stercorarius spp.) from Arctic Canada migrate to four oceans ...

• Main Authors: Harrison, Autumn-Lynn, Woodard, Paul, Mallory, Mark, Rausch, Jennie
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Arctic seabirds; animal tracking; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Bathurst Island; Bear Pass; Canada; Indian; Nunavut; Pacific; Polar Bear Pass; Polar Bear Pass National Wildlife Area; Long-tailed Jaeger; Parasitic Jaeger; polar bear; Polar bear pass national wildlife area; Pomarine Jaeger; Stercorarius pomarinus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nk98sf7v1; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.nk98sf7v1

Polar systems of avian migration remain unpredictable. For seabirds nesting in the Nearctic, it is often difficult to predict which of the world’s oceans birds will migrate to after breeding. Here we report on three related seabird species that migrated across four oceans following sympatric breeding at a central Canadian high Arctic nesting location. Using telemetry we tracked pomarine jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus, n=1) to the Arctic Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean; parasitic jaeger (S. parasiticus, n=4) to the western Atlantic Ocean, and long-tailed jaeger (S. longicaudus, n=2) to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and western Indian Ocean. We also report on extensive nomadic movements over ocean during the post-breeding period (19,002 km) and over land and ocean during the pre-breeding period (5,578 km) by pomarine jaeger, an irruptive species whose full migrations and nomadic behavior have been a mystery. While the small sample sizes in our study limit the ability to make generalizable inferences, our ... : We captured adult jaegers during incubation (late June to early July) 2018 and 2019 at Nanuit Itillinga (Polar Bear Pass) National Wildlife Area, Bathurst Island, Nunavut, Canada (NINWA, 75° 43' N, 98° 24' W). We used 5 g (LTJA, n=2) and 9.5 g (PAJA, n=2 and POJA, n=1) Argos solar-powered satellite tags (Microwave Telemetry Inc., deployed 2018-2019) to track seabird movements. Satellite tags were attached using a leg-loop harness[22] made of 4.7625mm wide tubular Teflon Ribbon (Bally Ribbon Mills) secured with copper crimps. The total tag and attachment weight comprised 0.4-2.1% of the body mass of known-weight individuals (Table 1). We assessed wing and leg mobility prior to release and watched birds until they flew out of sight. Data previously collected from two PAJA breeding on nearby Nasaruvaalik Island, Nunavut, Canada (58 km from NINWA, 75° 47' N, 96° 17' W) were also contributed to this study. These birds were tracked using archival light-level geolocators (GLS tags) attached with plastic cable ties ...