Diverse natal dispersal in four sibling red kites originating from Austria, including wintering in Tunisia
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Diverse natal dispersal in four sibling red kites originating from Austria, including wintering in Tunisia Ivan Literák 1 & Rainer Raab 2 & Marie Petretto 3 & Jan Škrábal 1 & Péter Spakovszky 2 & Jochen Steindl 2 Received: 4 July 2019 / Accepted: 21 November 2019 # Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2019
Abstract Four red kites (Milvus milvus), (siblings, RK1, RK2, RK3 and RK4) from the same nest in north-eastern Austria were tagged with telemetry (GPS/GSM/UHF) loggers on 23 June 2018 during the pulli growth stage and tracked until 5 April 2019. RK1 (female), RK2 (male), RK3 (female) and RK4 (female) occupied post-fledging areas until 1 August 2018 when they then began to migrate following a south-eastern direction. RK1 wintered in central Italy and used three temporary settlement areas (TSA). RK2 and RK3 migrated to the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea and returned back to winter in their natal area. They used three and two TSA, respectively. RK4 reached the Italian coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, crossing the sea in 12 h with an average flight speed of 58.6 km·h−1). The bird flew at an average altitude of 429 m above sea level before arriving in Algeria. RK4 then crossed the neighbouring border and wintered in Tunisia. It used two TSA (one in the Czech Republic and one in Tunisia). The migration behaviour and wintering locations among these floaters with the same genetic background during natal dispersal was substantially different and supposedly influenced by various environmental factors rather than by genetics. Keywords Milvus milvus . Telemetry . Postfledging area . Temporary settlement area . Migration
Introduction The red kite Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) is essentially a European raptor. Outside of Europe, it has a scattered distribution in North Africa and a limited distribution throughout Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. The entire population in the Western Palearctic (and in the world) is estimated between 25,000 and 33,000 breeding pairs, with Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain being home to approximately 90% of the global population (Shirihai et al. 2000; Génsbøl and Thiede 2008; Kirwan et al. 2008; BirdLife International 2015). Most
birds in north-east Europe are migratory, wintering mostly in southern France and Iberia, however, some individuals travel as far as Africa (Orta et al. 2019). Natal dispersal (i.e. the movement of wandering individuals from their birthplaces to their first breeding locations) can be considered as one of the most intriguing ecological processes in many raptor species (Penteriani and del Mar Delgado 2009). Natal dispersal in red kites was first studied using results of bird ringing activities. Germany supports the largest population of red kites and some birds remain in the country to overwinter. Despite this, an undefined majority migrate south-westerly to areas in France and Iberia (Bairlein et al.
* Ivan Literák [email protected]
Jochen Steindl [email protected] 1
Marie Petretto [email protected]
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