Contrasting extreme long-distance migration patterns in bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica

Migrating birds make the longest non-stop endurance flights in the animal kingdom. Satellite technology is now providing direct evidence on the lengths and durations of these flights and associated staging episodes for individual birds. Using this technology, we compared the migration performance of two subspecies of bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica travelling between non-breeding grounds in New Zealand (subspecies baueri) and northwest Australia (subspecies menzbieri) and breeding grounds in Alaska and eastern Russia, respectively. Individuals of both subspecies made long, usually non-stop, flights from non-breeding grounds to coastal staging grounds in the Yellow Sea region of East Asia (average 10 060 +/- SD 290 km for baueri and 5860 +/- 240 km for menzbieri). After an average stay of 41.2 +/- 4.8 d, baueri flew over the North Pacific Ocean before heading northeast to the Alaskan breeding grounds (6770 +/- 800 km). Menzbieri staged for 38.4 +/- 2.5 d, and flew over land and sea northeast to high arctic Russia (4170 +/- 370 km). The post-breeding journey for baueri involved several weeks of staging in southwest Alaska followed by non-stop flights across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand (11 690 km in a complete track) or stopovers on islands in the southwestern Pacific en route to New Zealand and eastern Australia. By contrast, menzbieri returned to Australia via stopovers in the New Siberian Islands, Russia, and back at the Yellow Sea; birds travelled on average 4510 +/- 360 km from Russia to the Yellow Sea, staged there for 40.8 +/- 5.6 d, and then flew another 56807180 km to Australia (10 820 +/- 300 km in total). Overall, the entire migration of the single baueri godwit with a fully completed return track totalled 29 280 km and involved 20 d of major migratory flight over a round-trip journey of 174 d. The entire migrations of menzbieri averaged 21 940 +/- 570 km, including 14 d of major migratory flights out of 154 d total. Godwits of both populations exhibit extreme flight performance, and baueri makes the longest (southbound) and second-longest (northbound) non-stop migratory flights documented for any bird. Both subspecies essentially make single stops when moving between non-breeding and breeding sites in opposite hemispheres. This reinforces the critical importance of the intertidal habitats used by fuelling godwits in Australasia, the Yellow Sea, and Alaska.

[1]  N. Bond,et al.  The relation of surface forcing of the Bering Sea to large-scale climate patterns , 2002 .

[2]  I. Tulp,et al.  MIGRATORY DEPARTURES OF WADERS FROM NORTH-WESTERN AUSTRALIA - BEHAVIOR, TIMING AND POSSIBLE MIGRATION ROUTES , 1994 .

[3]  Thomas Alerstam,et al.  Optimal Bird Migration: The Relative Importance of Time, Energy, and Safety , 1990 .

[4]  Thomas Alerstam,et al.  Wind as Selective Agent in Bird Migration , 1979 .

[5]  Thomas Alerstam,et al.  Temporal and spatial patterns of repeated migratory journeys by ospreys , 2006, Animal Behaviour.

[6]  M. Considine,et al.  Snipe to pigeons , 1996 .

[7]  T. Piersma.  Using the power of comparison to explain habitat use and migration strategies of shorebirds worldwide , 2007, Journal of Ornithology.

[8]  Nils Warnock,et al.  Spring Stopover Ecology of Migrant Western Sandpipers , 1998 .

[9]  W. Sutherland,et al.  A framework for monitoring the status of populations: An example from wader populations in the East Asian–Australasian flyway , 2010 .

[10]  Caz M Taylor,et al.  Population dynamics in migratory networks , 2010, Theoretical Ecology.

[11]  S. Juliano,et al.  POPULATION DYNAMICS , 2007, Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association.

[12]  Robert E. Gill,et al.  CROSSING THE ULTIMATE ECOLOGICAL BARRIER: EVIDENCE FOR AN 11 000-KM-LONG NONSTOP FLIGHT FROM ALASKA TO NEW ZEALAND AND EASTERN AUSTRALIA BY BAR-TAILED GODWITS , 2005 .

[13]  A. Baker,et al.  Rapid population decline in red knots: fitness consequences of decreased refuelling rates and late arrival in Delaware Bay , 2004, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[14]  Theunis Piersma,et al.  Landscape-scale experiment demonstrates that Wadden Sea intertidal flats are used to capacity by molluscivore migrant shorebirds. , 2009, The Journal of animal ecology.

[15]  P. Battley,et al.  BODY COMPOSITION AND FLIGHT RANGES OF BAR-TAILED GODWITS (LIMOSA LAPPONICA BAUERI) FROM NEW ZEALAND , 2005 .

[16]  T. D. Pigott,et al.  Bird Migration , 1910, Nature.

[17]  H. Meltofte,et al.  Effects of climate variation on the breeding ecology of Artic shorebirds , 2007 .

[18]  T. C. Williams,et al.  The Orientation of Transoceanic Migrants , 1990 .

[19]  E. V. van Loon,et al.  Stochastic atmospheric assistance and the use of emergency staging sites by migrants , 2010, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[20]  C. Handel,et al.  The importance of subarctic intertidal habitats to shorebirds : a study of the central Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska , 1990 .

[21]  N. Bond,et al.  Spatial and temporal variability of the Aleutian climate , 2005 .

[22]  T. Piersma.  Why marathon migrants get away with high metabolic ceilings: towards an ecology of physiological restraint , 2011, Journal of Experimental Biology.

[23]  T. Fransson,et al.  Impaired predator evasion in fat blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) , 1996, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[24]  E. Gwinner.  Bird Migration: Physiology and Ecophysiology , 2011 .

[25]  O. Johnson,et al.  Fat Cyclicity, Predicted Migratory Flight Ranges, and Features of Wintering Behavior in Pacific Golden-Plovers , 1989 .

[26]  T. Piersma,et al.  Guts Don't Fly: Small Digestive Organs in Obese Bar-Tailed Godwits , 1998 .

[27]  Daniel M Mulcahy,et al.  Coelomic Implantation of Satellite Transmitters in the Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) and the Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) Using Propofol, Bupivacaine, and Lidocaine , 2011, Journal of zoo and wildlife medicine : official publication of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians.

[28]  T. Alerstam.  Bird Migration Speed , 2003 .

[29]  Geographic Variation in Morphology of Alaska-Breeding Bar-Tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) is Not Maintained on their Nonbreeding Grounds in New Zealand , 2011 .

[30]  A. Hedenström,et al.  How fast can birds migrate , 1998 .

[31]  Vsevolod Afanasyev,et al.  The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian–African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration , 2012, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[32]  P. Higgins,et al.  Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Volume 7 Part A: boatbill to larks , 2006 .

[33]  Vsevolod Afanasyev,et al.  Year-Round Tracking of Small Trans-Saharan Migrants Using Light-Level Geolocators , 2010, PloS one.

[34]  R. Jones,et al.  Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: Potential Losses of Intertidal Habitat for Shorebirds , 2002 .

[35]  T. Piersma,et al.  Travelling on a budget: predictions and ecological evidence for bottlenecks in the annual cycle of long-distance migrants , 2008, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[36]  Peter Carlsson,et al.  Great flights by great snipes: long and fast non-stop migration over benign habitats , 2011, Biology Letters.

[37]  Willem Bouten,et al.  Can wind help explain seasonal differences in avian migration speed , 2010 .

[38]  Chunlüe Zhou,et al.  Impacts of tidal land reclamation in Bohai Bay, China: ongoing losses of critical Yellow Sea waterbird staging and wintering sites , 2011, Bird Conservation International.

[39]  P. M. Kelly,et al.  Effects on climate , 1980, Nature.

[40]  W. Kessler,et al.  Seasonal Evolution of Aleutian Low Pressure Systems: Implications for the North Pacific Subpolar Circulation , 2009 .

[41]  W. Sutherland,et al.  The response of bird populations to habitat loss , 2008 .

[42]  P. Battley.  Shorebirds of the Yellow Sea: Importance, Threats and Conservation Status , 2004 .

[43]  P. Sagar,et al.  Foraging strategies and migration of southern Buller's albatrosses Diomedea b. bulled breeding on the Solander Is, New Zealand , 2000 .

[44]  Nils Warnock.  Stopping vs. staging: the difference between a hop and a jump , 2010 .

[45]  David C. Douglas,et al.  Extreme endurance flights by landbirds crossing the Pacific Ocean: ecological corridor rather than barrier? , 2008, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[46]  Bing Chen,et al.  Red Knots (Calidris canutus piersmai and C. c. rogersi) depend on a small threatened staging area in Bohai Bay, China , 2010 .

[47]  J. Wilson,et al.  Migration ecology and morphometries of two Bar-tailed Godwit populations in Australia , 2007 .

[48]  R. Gill,et al.  Variation in timing, behaviour, and plumage of spring migrant Bar-tailed Godwits on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska , 2010 .

[49]  F. Chapin,et al.  Evidence and Implications of Recent Climate Change in Northern Alaska and Other Arctic Regions , 2004 .

[50]  William S. Seegar,et al.  Routes and travel rates of migrating Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus and Swainson's Hawks Buteo swainsoni in the Western Hemisphere , 1998 .

[51]  M. Ueta,et al.  The migration route and behaviour of Eastern Curlews Numenius madagascariensis: Migration and behaviour of Eastern Curlews , 2002 .