Migration strategy of the Bohai Bay wintering population of juvenile Oriental Storks (Ciconia boyciana)

doi:10.17520/biods.2021232

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: The Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana) primarily breeds in the Far East of Russia and Northeast China. There are two main migratory populations wintering in China, the Yangtze River wintering population, with a migration distance of about 2,600 km, and the Bohai Bay wintering population, with a migration distance of about 1,500 km. This study was conducted to obtain the characteristics of migration strategies and wind utilization of wintering populations in Bohai Bay during spring and autumn migration.

Methods: Based on the satellite tracking data of 14 juveniles from 2016 to 2018, we compared differences in their autumn and spring migration patterns and studied the effects of wind speed and direction at 850 mb on migration speed of the Bohai Bay wintering population.

Results: The migration distances in spring and autumn were similar, and the tailwind conditions in spring (2.2 ± 6.3 m/s) were significantly better than that in autumn (-2.4 ± 4.1 m/s, P < 0.05), leading to the daily flying speed in spring (280.4 ± 62.0 km/d) being significantly faster than that in autumn (185.5 ± 72.0 km/d, P < 0.05), and the flight duration of the spring migration (5.9 ± 2.9 d) was significantly shorter than that of the autumn migration (10.3 ± 6.5 d). Furthermore, the stopover time in spring (5.4 ± 9.7 d) was significantly shorter than that in autumn (17.8 ± 18.2 d, P = 0.05). Based on the above two points, the migration duration in spring (11.2 ± 8.7 d) was significantly shorter than that in autumn (28.0 ± 21.2 d, P < 0.05).

Conclusion: When migrating from/to Bohai Bay, the 14 juveniles used tailwinds to reach summering grounds faster in spring, and when they migrated headwinds in autumn, they flied slower and had longer flight and rest times. In conclusion, the Oriental Stork is a migratory soaring bird that primarily relies on thermal flow, while the tailwind also contributes to the migration success.

Key words: Ciconia boyciana, GPS/GSM tracking, migration strategy, tailwind, migration duration, daily flying speed

Garidi, Shujuan Fan, Lei Cao, Beixi Zhang, Yuxi Wang, Baoguang Zhu, Shubin Dong, Anton Sasin, Gerelt Zhao. Migration strategy of the Bohai Bay wintering population of juvenile Oriental Storks (Ciconia boyciana)[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2022, 30(5): 21232.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2021232

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2022/V30/I5/21232

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Migration routes and stopover sites of juvenile Oriental Storks overwintering in Bohai Bay. (a) Autumn migration (N = 13); (b) Spring migration (N = 9).

Table 1 Table of parameters of autumn and spring migration of juvenile Oriental Storks population in Bohai Bay. Significant differences were shown in bold.

迁徙参数 Parameters	秋季 Autumn (mean ± SD, N = 13)	春季 Spring (mean ± SD, N = 9)	P
迁徙开始时间 Departure date	24 October ± 8	23 April ± 35
迁徙结束时间 Arrival date	21 November ± 17	4 May ± 31
迁徙持续时间 Migration duration (d)	28.0 ± 21.2	11.2 ± 8.7	< 0.05
迁徙距离 Migration distance (km)	1,566.9 ± 325.9	1,533.8 ± 424.8	0.69
迁徙速度 Migration speed (km/d)	92.4 ± 61.7	211.1 ± 118.2	< 0.05
迁徙飞行速度 Travel speed (km/d)	185.5 ± 72.0	280.4 ± 62.0	< 0.05
迁徙飞行时间 Travel duration (d)	10.3 ± 6.5	5.9 ± 2.5	< 0.05
停歇时间 Stopover duration (d)	17.8 ± 18.2	5.4 ± 9.7	0.05
停歇位点数 Number of stopovers	1.8 ± 1.5	0.7 ± 1.1	0.07

Fig. 2 Box plots of the main migration parameters of the spring (green; N = 9) and autumn (orange; N = 13) migrations of the juvenile Oriental Storks wintering in the Bohai Bay. “NS” indicates no significant difference.

Fig. 3 GAM plot from the best fitting function of tailwind at 850 mb (X-axis) on the daily flying speed (Y-axis). Circles represent the orgin data points. The dashed line represents the two standard error boundaries around the covariate. The vertical line along the X-axis represents the distribution of the 850 mb tailwind data points.

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