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Journal of BirdLife Australia
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Patterns of partial avian migration in northern and southern temperate latitudes of the New World

Alex E. Jahn A D , Susana P. Bravo A B , Víctor R. Cueto A B , Douglas J. Levey C and Marvin V. Morales C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Piso 4, Pabellón 2, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

B Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Intendente Gq/4iraldes 2160, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

C Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

D Corresponding author. Email: alexjahn77@yahoo.com

Emu 112(1) 17-22 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU10091
Submitted: 16 December 2010  Accepted: 22 July 2011   Published: 1 February 2012

Abstract

We describe partial migration of passerine birds across temperate latitudes in the New World. Owing to lower climatic seasonality near the coast of North America, the proportion of partial migrants at high latitudes in North America should be lower when excluding coastal records. We detected a 10% decrease in the proportion of partially migratory species at high latitudes when excluding species recorded only coastally at those latitudes. We also expected a smaller proportion of partial migrants in inland North America compared with South America. However, at high latitudes (i.e. >39°) we found a similar proportion of partially migratory species but a different taxonomic makeup between continents. Within the Tyrannidae (New World flycatchers), we evaluated the latitude at which species winter in North and South America. The mean latitude at which partially migratory New World flycatchers winter in temperate South America (30.3°S, s.d. 5.6) is not significantly different from the mean latitude in inland North America (30.4°N, s.d. 2.8). Partial migration of birds in the New World may be under different constraints, depending on factors such as habitat occupancy and distance of a population from the coast.

Additional keywords: austral migration, continentality, seasonality, Tyrannidae, overwinter.


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