Tracking natal dispersal in a coastal population of a migratory songbird using feather stable isotope (δ2H, δ34S) tracers.

ABSTRACT: Adult birds tend to show high fidelity to their breeding territory or disperse over relatively short distances. Gene flow among avian populations is thus expected to occur primarily through natal dispersal. Although natal dispersal is a critical demographic process reflecting the area over which population dynamics take place, low recapture rates of birds breeding for the first time have limited our ability to reliably estimate dispersal rates and distances. Stable isotope approaches can elucidate origins of unmarked birds and so we generated year- and age-specific δ2H and δ34S feather isoscapes (ca. 180 000 km2) of coastal-breeding Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) and used bivariate probability density functions to assign the likely natal areas of 35 males recruited as first-year breeders

SUBMITTER: Hache S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3989223 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature