Title
Migration and winter distribution of the Chestnutcollared Longspur
Author(s)
Ellison, Kevin; McKinnon, Emily; Zack, Steve; Olimb, Sarah; Sparks, Robert; Strasser, Erin
Published
2017
Abstract
The Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcariusornatus) is one of five grassland songbirds, endemic withinNorth America, with populations that have declined>65% since the 1960s. These species breed and winterin the northern and southern Great Plains, respectively.Identifying migration routes, wintering sites, and thetiming of their habitat use is key for understanding therelative magnitude of threats across the annual cycleand effectively targeting habitats for conservation. Wetracked migratory movements of seven Chestnut-collaredLongspurs with light-level geolocators deployed in Canada.Individuals wintered up to 112-1,200km apart. All followedthe Central Flyway, circumvented high-elevation terrain,and traveled east of the breeding location. Unlike mostsongbirds, the durations of spring and fall migrationswere similar; on average 42 ± 7d and 41 ± 5d during falland spring migrations, respectively, for an approximately2,000km migration; this highlights the need to betterunderstand habitat requirements during migration forgrassland songbirds. Using geospatial habitat data, weassessed winter distribution overlap with four otherendemic grassland songbirds; wintering range overlapped63-99%. Future studies should use more precise devices(e.g., archival GPS units), programmed for data collectiondates from this study, to identify specific migratory sites forbetter conserving this and associated grassland species.
Keywords
cropland;geo-logger;grasslands;migration rate;northern Great Plains;songbird

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