Migration departure strategies of shorebirds at a final pre-breeding stopover site ...

• Main Authors: Tan, Kun, Choi, Chi-Yeung, Peng, Hebo, Melville, David, Ma, Zhijun
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: figshare 2018
• Subjects: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified; Ecology; FOS: Biological sciences; Sociology; FOS: Sociology; Eurasian Curlew; Numenius arquata
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4106009.v1; https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Migration_departure_strategies_of_shorebirds_at_a_final_pre-breeding_stopover_site/4106009/1

Abstract Background Departure decisions and behaviors of migratory birds at stopover sites are expected to maximize fitness by trade-offs among avoiding predators, optimizing refueling (energy) capacity, and matching other life-history events. We predict that species with different body sizes and migratory destinations will exhibit different behaviors when departing from the same stopover site. We also predict that with strong time constraint at the final pre-breeding stopover site, departure decisions may be less sensitive to exogenous factors, such as wind condition, compared to other stopover or nonbreeding sites. Methods We recorded migratory departures of four shorebird species, i.e. Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris), and Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), at Yalujiang Estuary Wetlands in China, a final pre-breeding stopover site in the northern Yellow Sea, from 2011 to 2014. We compared flock sizes, departure time and departure ...