Biology subjects

Piersma, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Piersma, T..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Eurasian Spoonbill chicks receive parental care up to several months after fledging, but not into migration

Despite its potential role in affecting survival, habitat use and migration strategies of juvenile birds, post-fledging parental care is poorly studied, as it requires that families can be followed over large distances. Here we combine visual observations of colour-ringed chicks being fed after fledging with GPS-tracking and accelerometer-based behavioural classification of fledged chicks and their parent(s) to quantify post-fledging parental care in Eurasian spoonbills in relation to age of the chick and sex of the chick or parent. We show that the number of observed feedings and the amount of overall contact between chicks and parents, i.e. when chick and parent were <10 m apart, strongly decreased with chick age. Chicks were observed being fed until 125 d old, always within 40 km of the natal colony. The amount of contact strongly varied among the 16 GPS-tagged chick-parent pairs, on average decreasing from 8% of contact time at 40 d old to <2% at 90 d. The last contact occurred at chick ages of 44-136 d (median: 88 d). All contact occurred within 18 km of the natal colony except for the first outbound migratory flight of one chick-parent pair. Both mothers and fathers engaged in post-fledging care, with some evidence that mothers had slightly more contact with chicks than fathers, overall as well as while the chick was begging or foraging. In 10 out of 11 cases that both chick and parent embarked on autumn migration, they did not migrate together: post-fledging care ended on average one week before the adults departure and four weeks before the chicks departure on autumn migration. Significance statementProlonged parental care may have positive effects on the survival and influence the habitat use and migration strategies of juvenile birds, as parents may continue to feed their young, show them suitable sites for foraging or resting or suitable routes for migration. Nonetheless, the duration of post-fledging parental care is poorly studied as it requires that parents and their young can be followed over large distances. Based on feeding observations and GPS-tracking of fledged chicks and their parent(s), we show that in Eurasian spoonbills Platalea leucorodia, the duration of post-fledging parental care is highly variable but ends before the onset of migration. This has important implications for the development of migration routines of juvenile spoonbills.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2024

Phylogeography of bar-tailed godwits: pre-LGM structure in Beringia and westward colonization of post-glacial Europe

In migratory birds, high mobility may reduce population structure through increased dispersal and enable adaptive responses to environmental change, whereas rigid migratory routines predict low dispersal, increased geographic structure, and limited flexibility to respond to change. We used nextRAD sequencing of 14,318 single-nucleotide polymorphisms to explore the population genetics and phylogeographic history of the bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica, a migratory shorebird with six recognized subspecies and known for making the longest non-stop flights of any landbird. Using scenario-testing in an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework, we infer that bar-tailed godwits existed in three main lineages at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), when much of their present-day Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding range persisted in a large, unglaciated Siberian-Beringian refugium. Subsequently, population structure developed at both longitudinal extremes: in the east, a genetic cline exists across latitude in the Alaska breeding range of subspecies L. l. baueri; in the west, one lineage diversified into three extant subspecies L. l. lapponica, taymyrensis, and yamalensis, the former two of which migrate through previously glaciated western Europe. We also detected unrecognized population structure among bar-tailed godwits wintering in Europe, wherein a significant proportion of purported lapponica individuals were in fact taymyrensis, necessitating a re-assessment of the migrations, ecology, and population estimates for these subspecies. In the global range of this long-distance migrant, we found evidence of both (1) fidelity to rigid behavioral routines promoting fine-scale geographic population structure (in the east), and (2) flexibility to colonize recently available migratory flyways and non-breeding areas (in the west).

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Conserving unprotected important coastal habitats in the Yellow Sea: shorebird occurrence, distribution and food resources at Lianyungang

The authors have withdrawn their manuscript since this preprint contain errors which have been corrected in the version published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation (doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00724). Therefore, the authors do not wish this preprint to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.

ecology↗