Long-distance migratory shorebirds travel faster towards their breeding grounds, but fly faster post-breeding.

ABSTRACT: Long-distance migrants are assumed to be more time-limited during the pre-breeding season compared to the post-breeding season. Although breeding-related time constraints may be absent post-breeding, additional factors such as predation risk could lead to time constraints that were previously underestimated. By using an automated radio telemetry system, we compared pre- and post-breeding movements of long-distance migrant shorebirds on a continent-wide scale. From 2014 to 2016, we deployed radio transmitters on 1,937 individuals of 4 shorebird species at 13 sites distributed across North America. Following theoretical predictions, all species migrated faster during the pre-breeding season, compared to the post-breeding season. These differences in migration speed between seasons were attri

SUBMITTER: Duijns S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6603026 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature