Spring arrival of the common cuckoo at breeding grounds is strongly determined by environmental conditions in tropical Africa.

ABSTRACT: Failure to adapt migration timing to changes in environmental conditions along migration routes and at breeding locations can result in mismatches across trophic levels, as occurs between the brood parasitic common cuckoo Cuculus canorus and its hosts. Using satellite tracking data from 87 male cuckoos across 11 years, we evaluate why the cuckoo has not advanced its arrival to the UK. Across years, breeding ground arrival was primarily determined by timing of departure from stopover in West Africa before northward crossing of the Sahara. Together with high population synchrony and low apparent endogenous control of this event, this suggests that a seasonal ecological constraint operating here limits overall variation in breeding grounds arrival, although this event was itself influe

SUBMITTER: Davies JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10281800 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature