Age-related differences in fall migration timing and performance of juvenile and adult Wood Thrushes departing from a breeding site.

Abstract

Juvenile passerines are expected to have lower migration performance than adults due to their inexperience with long-distance flights and morphological limitations, such as shorter wing length. From 2016 to 2019 we radio-tagged nestling and adult Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) at a breeding site in southwestern Ontario and used the automated Motus Wildlife Tracking System to test if age class predicts timing of the onset of fall migration (date, time of night), flight speed during the initial migration flight across Lake Erie, and overall pace of migration southward through the eastern United States. We detected 60/117 (51%) adults and 82/119 (69%) juveniles departing the breeding area as they initiated fall migration. Compared with adults, juveniles departed at an earlier date in fall and later time in the evening. When crossing Lake Erie on their first migratory flight juveniles travelled about 25% slower than adults but this was due primarily to adults making better use of tailwinds. When travelling south through the eastern U.S. juveniles had a slower overall migration pace (47.3 ± 5.1km/day) than adults (71.6 ± 4.7km/day). Although we found evidence that juvenile Wood Thrushes have an earlier and slower fall migration than adults, identifying the proximate and ultimate mechanisms remains a challenge. There is no evidence that juvenile Wood Thrushes are inefficient in migration flight or refueling at stopovers, and it is unlikely that the fall migration pace in this species affects their ability to compete for wintering food resources. More tracking studies from breeding sites are needed to understand the ecological factors favouring and biological significance of, age-related differences in migration performance.