Remotely sensed wind speed predicts soaring behaviour in a wide-ranging pelagic seabird.

ABSTRACT: Global wind patterns affect flight strategies in many birds, including pelagic seabirds, many of which use wind-powered soaring to reduce energy costs during at-sea foraging trips and migration. Such long-distance movement patterns are underpinned by local interactions between wind conditions and flight behaviour, but these fine-scale relationships are far less well understood. Here we show that remotely sensed ocean wind speed and direction are highly significant predictors of soaring behaviour in a migratory pelagic seabird, the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus). We used high-frequency GPS tracking data (10 Hz) and statistical behaviour state classification to identify two energetic modes in at-sea flight, corresponding to flap-like and soar-like flight. We show that soaring is signifi

SUBMITTER: Gibb R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5550973 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature