{"id":48641,"date":"2018-02-27T03:56:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T07:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=48641"},"modified":"2018-02-26T17:57:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T21:57:24","slug":"migration-research-reveals-key-to-declines-in-rare-songbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/02_27_2018\/migration-research-reveals-key-to-declines-in-rare-songbirds","title":{"rendered":"Migration research reveals key to declines in rare songbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual long-distance migration of rare, tiny songbirds that reproduce in the Great Lakes region and Appalachian Mountains is no longer a mystery.<\/p>\n

By tracking one of the smallest species ever monitored over thousands of miles using cutting-edge technology, a team of ornithologists led by scientists at The University of Toledo found that it is where golden-winged warblers spend the winter in the tropics that determines if a population is declining or stable, not factors associated with the breeding grounds thousands of miles north in the United States and Canada. <\/p>\n

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A golden-winged warbler carrying a geolocator in Minnesota.<\/p><\/div>Over the course of the five-year study, the scientists found that different populations of the birds, which are about the size of a ping-pong ball and weigh less than three pennies, do not mix between their separate northern nesting grounds occupied during the spring and summer and the tropical sites where they spend the winter. <\/p>\n

Mapped using data from 76 light level geolocators recovered from the birds, each population shows strong migratory connectivity, or geographic segregation, that confirms that populations of the birds stay together in different locations for the seasons throughout the year. This strong link between breeding and non-breeding areas means that populations may be exposed to different threats and conditions during the winter.<\/p>\n

According to the study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>, golden-winged warblers from declining populations spend winters in northern South America. Stable populations of the species spend winters in Central America. <\/p>\n

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A team led by UT researchers tracked where golden-winged warblers traveled for the winter.<\/p><\/div>\u201cThey\u2019re separate, and it\u2019s remarkable,\u201d said Gunnar Kramer, PhD student researcher in environmental sciences at UT. \u201cMost species we track like this don\u2019t show strong connections between breeding sites and wintering sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese golden-winged warblers that breed throughout the Great Lakes region and Appalachian Mountains are going to different areas in the winter,\u201d said Dr. Henry Streby, assistant professor in the UT Department of Environmental Sciences. \u201cThat\u2019s pivotal because those tropical areas experienced different rates of forest loss during the last 60 years. When we look at forest-loss rates, it correlates closely with golden-winged warbler population changes on breeding grounds thousands of miles away.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it comes to saving the species that is under consideration for federal Endangered Species protection, the researchers say conservationists should switch their focus away from places where their efforts cannot benefit the species and toward restoring habitat and preventing further deforestation in northern Venezuela, \u201cwhich is, unfortunately, one of the most difficult places to do conservation work in the Americas,\u201d Streby said.<\/p>\n

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Gunnar Kramer held a golden-winged warbler, which carried a geolocator. Researchers attached the tiny backpack to the bird in 2015 and recovered it in 2016. The data revealed the warbler\u2019s migratory route and winter location.<\/p><\/div>\u201cIf the winter habitat keeps disappearing, the warblers that winter in northern South America won\u2019t survive and come back to the Appalachian Mountains no matter how much breeding habitat is available to them,\u201d Streby said.<\/p>\n

Kramer and Streby tracked the birds using the geolocators attached to the birds with tiny backpacks around their legs. Figure-eight harnesses secured the geolocator backpacks, which contained a battery, a computer chip and a light sensor. The whole thing weighs less than half of a paper clip and does not inhibit flight or movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe light sensor records ambient light and stores it with a time stamp on the unit every couple minutes,\u201d Kramer said. \u201cWe used differences in day length and changes in how fast dawn and dusk occur to predict daily locations of the birds throughout the year. Based on how long the day and night are and features of the transitions between day and night, you can tell with reasonable accuracy where you are on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike other heavier tracking devices, geolocators do not transmit data, so the researchers had to recapture every bird marked with a geolocator and remove the device to recover data.<\/p>\n

\u201cComprehensive studies like this one show the importance of understanding the complex relationships migratory species have with different environments throughout the year and demonstrate that songbirds that spend the summer in our backyards may be experiencing challenging conditions elsewhere that are causing declines,\u201d Kramer said. \u201cThese studies also provide information that can immediately be used to start improving conservation efforts, and that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UT researchers collaborated with scientists from several universities and agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Tennessee and West Virginia University.<\/p>\n

Funding was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team led by UT researchers tracked where golden-winged warblers traveled for the winter and discovered declining populations spend winters in northern South America. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48645,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48641\/revisions\/48645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}