Timing of initial arrival at the breeding site predicts age at first reproduction in a long-lived migratory bird.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Peter H BeckerHelmut Wendeln

Abstract

In long-lived vertebrates, individuals generally visit potential breeding areas or populations during one or more seasons before reproducing for the first time. During these years of prospecting, they select a future breeding site, colony, or mate and improve various skills and their physical condition to meet the requirements of reproduction. One precondition of successful reproduction is arrival in time on the breeding grounds. Here, we study the intricate links among the date of initial spring arrival, body mass, sex, and the age of first breeding in the common tern Sterna hirundo, a long-lived migratory colonial seabird. The study is based on a unique, individual-based, long-term dataset of sexed birds, marked with transponders, which allow recording their individual arrival, overall attendance, and clutch initiation remotely and automatically year by year over the entire lifetime at the natal colony site. We show that the seasonal date of initial arrival at the breeding grounds predicts the individual age at first reproduction, which mostly occurs years later. Late first-time arrivals remain delayed birds throughout subsequent years. Our findings reveal that timing of arrival at the site of reproduction and timing of repro...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 12, 2012·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Christina BauchSimon Verhulst
Apr 10, 2010·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Maren RebkeJames W Vaupel
Apr 24, 2010·The Journal of Animal Ecology·James Holland JonesAnne Pusey
Sep 29, 2015·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·James A MillsAndreas Zedrosser
Jun 23, 2015·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Sandra BouwhuisPeter H Becker
Jan 28, 2014·The Journal of Animal Ecology·K Lesley SzostekPeter H Becker
Dec 21, 2018·Molecular Ecology·Coraline BichetSandra Bouwhuis
Nov 8, 2020·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Nicholas A W BrownSigal Balshine
Jan 7, 2021·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Rachna B ReddyJohn C Mitani

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