Meeting Abstract
P1.27 Friday, Jan. 4 Effects of land use on seasonal foraging behavior in white-winged doves of Arizona: Insights from stable isotope analysis PETERS, J. M.*; CARLETON, S. A.; CRAIG, C.; MARTINEZ DEL RIO, M.; Harvard Univ. ; New Mexico State Univ.; USGS; Univ. of Wyoming jcbptrs@gmail.com
White-winged doves are critical pollinators of saguaro cacti, as well as an important seasonal game species in the southwestern United States. Each year, these doves leave their wintering grounds in southern Mexico to spend the summer months on their breeding grounds in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. As the human population of urban Arizona expands and agricultural lands are developed, the habitat of white-winged doves is constantly in flux. Over the last decade, individual doves appear to have specialized for feeding on either saguaro products in the Sonoran Desert or on crops from agricultural lands within their breeding grounds. Recent studies suggest that these two groups may be developing into distinct subpopulations. Saguaro cacti products, crops and sources of drinking water in this region differ significantly in isotopic signature (δD and δ13C), and because these isotopes are incorporated into the feathers of birds that feed on them, one can determine which of the two food sources comprise an individuals dove’s diet by analyzing the isotopic composition of their feathers. White-winged doves molt their primary flight feathers sequentially throughout the breeding season, so the isotopic signature of a freshly grown flight feather indicates the dove’s diet during the current year, while an un-molted feather reflects its diet from the previous year. In this study, we compared the isotopic signatures of freshly grown and unmolted flight feathers from white-winged doves on both desert and agricultural lands, to determine whether individual doves retain their feeding preferences from year to year. Our data will provide insights into how anthropogenic changes to Arizona’s landscape have affected the foraging behavior and spatial distribution of white-winged doves.
