The spatial consistency and repeatability of migratory flight routes and stationary sites of individual European nightjars based on multiannual GPS tracks.

backgroundThe degree to which avian migrants revisit the same sites to replicate routes from previous years has received more and more attention as the possibilities of tracking small to medium-size birds over multiple annual cycles have improved. Repeated measurements of individuals with an appropriate sampling resolution can potentially inform about their navigation and migration strategies and to what extent observed variation within and between individuals may reflect the selective potential in the population.

methodsWe analysed the annual space-use of European nightjars Caprimulgus europaeus tracked with GPS-loggers in multiple years between northern Europe and southern Africa. We quantified spatial consistency of stationary sites and variation, repeatability, and latitudinal correlations in route choice and also investigated barrier-associated changes of within- and between-individual longitudinal variation in flight routes.

resultsWe found that the nightjars consistently used the same breeding and wintering sites. In contrast, the birds generally varied their migration routes between years, and we could only rarely confirm site fidelity to stopover sites. Nevertheless, route variation within individuals remained low for most of both autumn and spring migration, while the between individual variation generally was larger, resulting in a high repeatability in flight routes. Although we found extensive spatial autocorrelation in both seasons across latitudes, we detected significant changes in longitudinal variation associated with the passage of ecological barriers enroute. Potential intermediate goal areas were visited prior to the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert in both seasons. In spring, within-individual route variability dropped to a few tens of kilometres at the initiation of the Sahara crossing but increased to maximum over the barrier.

conclusionsThe nightjars incorporate individual-specific space use within their annual cycle that allows for a degree of flexibility during migration, possibly driven by the energetic benefits of allowing adaptive wind drift while airborne. Our data demonstrate how topography and spatial autocorrelation of positions influence flight path variability that may diminish or reinforce individuality in route choice. Hence, this study highlights that identifying and quantifying past and present external influences on emergence of realised routes can be critical for distinguishing the genetic basis and environmental variation in migration.