Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

Fontanilles, Philippe; de la Hera, Iván; Sourdrille, Kevin; Lacoste, Florent; Kerbiriou, Christian

Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

dc.contributor.author	Fontanilles, Philippe
dc.contributor.author	de la Hera, Iván
dc.contributor.author	Sourdrille, Kevin
dc.contributor.author	Lacoste, Florent
dc.contributor.author	Kerbiriou, Christian
dc.contributor.funder	Conseil Départemental des Pyrénées Atlantiques, France	en
dc.contributor.funder	Syndicat Nive Maritime, France	en
dc.contributor.funder	Villefranque Council, France	en
dc.contributor.funder	Bayonne Council, France	en
dc.date.accessioned	2019-11-13T09:38:23Z
dc.date.available	2019-11-13T09:38:23Z
dc.date.issued	2019-09-28
dc.date.updated	2019-11-12T16:37:18Z
dc.description.abstract	Wetlands are highly productive habitats used by many avian species as stopover sites during their migrations. However, these habitats are highly threatened by anthropogenic activities, such as land-use changes, the introduction of exotic species, and global warming. Further understanding on the spatiotemporal use of wetlands and their surrounding areas by migrating birds is essential to predict how these changes might affect avian en route ecology. We selected a habitat-generalist passerine, the Bluethroat Luscinia svecica, as model of how migratory birds exploit a highly anthropogenic river basin in southwestern France (i.e. Barthes de la Nive) during autumn migration. We captured and radiotracked 29 young Bluethroats in this region to shed light on different aspects of their stopover ecology and behavior such as stopover duration, habitat selection, and home-range size. We also characterized Bluethroat diet and arthropod availability in different habitats. Bluethroats positively selected pure or mixed reed beds (associated with sedge), hydrophilous tall grasslands, and corn crops. Birds staying more than one day, 8.4 days on average, used preferably corn crops. Home-range sizes were on average 5.8 ha (fixed kernels K95) and high-occupancy area (K50) was 1.36 ha with large individual variation. Bluethroats stopping over with low fuel loads tended to have larger home ranges and used preferentially corn crops, wet, or mesotrophic grasslands and rural paths. Reed beds were typically used as roosting habitat for the majority of birds, being on average 397 m apart from their daytime core areas. Short-staying birds tended to show higher fuel loads and restricted their activities to a smaller home range (1 ha) in pure and mixed reed beds. The diet of Bluethroats was dominated by ants, spiders, and beetles that were particularly abundant in corn crops. The use of corn crops by autumn-migrating Bluethroats in our study site seems to be a reasonable solution in a highly altered environment. Reducing the use of insecticides in these crops and delaying the harvesting time after mid-October are two supplemental measures that, together with a good management of the remaining wetland patches, could greatly favor Bluethroats and other migratory species in this region.	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Fontanilles, P., de la Hera, I., Sourdrille, K., Lacoste, F. and Kerbiriou, C. (2019) 'Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin', Journal of Ornithology. doi: 10.1007/s10336-019-01717-z	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1007/s10336-019-01717-z	en
dc.identifier.eissn	2193-7206
dc.identifier.issn	2193-7192
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Journal of Ornithology	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/8994
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Springer Nature Switzerland AG	en
dc.rights	© 2019, Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V. Published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a paper published as Fontanilles, P., De la Hera, I., Sourdrille, K., Lacoste, F. and Kerbiriou, C. (2019) 'Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin', Journal of Ornithology, doi: 10.1007/s10336-019-01717-z. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/: 10.1007/s10336-019-01717-z	en
dc.subject	Luscinia svecica	en
dc.subject	Home range	en
dc.subject	Fuel load	en
dc.subject	Habitat selection	en
dc.subject	Corn crop	en
dc.subject	Diet	en
dc.subject	Trophic resources	en
dc.title	Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en