Meeting Abstract
64.1 Wednesday, Jan. 6 Accuracy of Light Level Loggers for Tracking Forest Dwelling Short-Distant Migratory Birds FUDICKAR, A.M.*; WIKELSKI, M.; PARTECKE, J.; Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Dept. of Migration and Immuno-ecology; Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Dept. of Migration and Immuno-ecology; Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Dept. of Migration and Immuno-ecology afudickar@orn.mpg.de
In order to stop the decline of populations of migratory animal’s world wide it is necessary to identify events encountered by individuals throughout their annual cycle. Until recently, tracking individual migratory birds has been limited to large species capable of bearing the load of heavy tracking devices. Geolocation via light level loggers has recently provided the opportunity to track small songbirds. Geologgers have been successfully used in artic sea birds and long-distant migrants. However, whether this technology can also be reliably used in forest dwelling short-distant migratory species is still unknown. In order to test the accuracy of light level loggers for tracking forest dwelling short distant migratory songbirds to their wintering grounds, we collected location data from 30 stationary light loggers at 15 forest sites over 800 km from December to March in Western Europe. Additionally, we monitored the movement of non migratory songbirds fit with light loggers over the same time frame to compare their known locations with locations estimated by light level loggers. We found that different calibration methods can significantly alter location estimations and that the appropriate calibration method for light level loggers is species specific. Additionally, by comparing light loggers on multiple individuals at known locations and corresponding stationary loggers we identify an affect of individual behavior on location estimation. These results indicate that the appropriate application of light level loggers for tracking songbirds requires prior knowledge of individual behavior during migration on their wintering grounds.
