Movements and Migration

Birds have been banded and tracked in order to determine their movements. Bands put in one location, can be respotted in a totally different location which will enable researchers to see the travels of the birds. While this is occurring and data is being recorded, the flyways of the birds originated. The Pacific, Atlantic, Central and Mississippi, flyways that birds routinely follow during their migrations when traveling through North America.

While discussing our papers, I found that the topics the different students covered were a lot more varied than when it came to breeding biology, however, the methods were primarily the same. The newest trend of movements and migration research is to use the methodology of radio telemetry. One of the topics was tracking the Avian flu disease on the backs of Pintails. Some further research my peer wanted to see was an increase on tracking of these Pintails "put more backpacks on ducks!" Another topic that was discussed was genetic variations in migrating populations of lesser snow geese. One of the populations that was close to another population was more genetically varied than a population much further away. It turns out that these two genetically distinct populations have different migration paths. However, the two populations that were closer genetically, actually take the same route while migrating. Potential further research that can be done is to do two separate projects of translocating the lesser snow geese to other populations. One project would be done using egg and the other by transolcating the adults to see if which migration pattern they would follow.

The Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) is endangered. They nest on the ground in close proximity to to a predator, the Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus). Their solution to this, however, is to also nest in close proximity to Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus) or Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus). When the Arctic Fox comes too close to the nest, the raptors will attack the fox and scare them away from the nest. However, this is one of the rarest geese in Europe. It is per chance due to the fact that the Peregrine Falcon was badly affected by the exposure of DDT and severely affected their populations, in turn affecting the Red-breasted Goose's populations as well. Per chance since the Peregrine Falcon populations have recovered the Red-breasted Goose may make a comeback as well. Time will tell.



The Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) has exceeded expectations. Many critters attempt to fly around these large mountain ranges, but the Bar-headed Goose just flies right over them! It is one of the most intense migrations.
Types of duck movements

• Sea ducks do not enjoy flying over land, so they will often try to find ways to avoid that and continue to fly over water ways.
• Some ducks move only as far as they need to to find ample food supply. 
• Some ducks move according to the rain. The rain is in charging of flooding certain wetlands which the ducks need to breed.

Moult migration

While molting, wildfowl are in a very fragile state. Not capable of flying away from predators, these creatures must find ways to avoid predation. Some do this through only staying on wetlands and not moving until all secondary and primary feathers have grown back. Others do this by living on islands where mammals are not able to swim to.

Timing of migration

There are several things to take into consideration before these wildfowl migrate:

1. Weather conditions - this is the one that really determines when the birds will leave. 
2. Length of days - unnatural lights can cause delays in migration.
3. Body reserves - must eat well enough to last through the migration but not be too heavy so there is not excess wing loading!

Dispersal 

Geese and swans stick together in the mating pairs through migration. Ducks do not. Therefore, the males migrate before the females because the females still need to incubate and take care of the young.

Fidelity to sites

Waterfowl are a group in the animal world that are unique in their distribution  They are able to have high site fidelity in different sites including wintering, staging and breeding because of their strict requirements for habitats. Buffleheads females, for example, will often go back to their same breeding sites. Gauther found that the successful breeders tended to return to their same site while failed ducks did not return to their same cavity. Waterfowl are usually traditional in the staging areas (refer to Tundra Swan in Humboldt County).

Refer to element 1 to see all of the wintering and breeding habitats for my favorite 24 ducks! There is quite a wide variety. Some species, like the Magpie Goose, do not migrate. Other animals will travel many miles to get to their breeding versus wintering grounds. For instance, the Blank Brant travels 3000 miles nonstop to get from breeding to wintering grounds.


Many geese return to their natal site. Males tended to return their to figure out the way that life works, rather than breeding on those grounds. When they were old enough to begin breeding, they dispersed away from their colony to find new lands to colonize. Young geese, males (namely larger males), and small females tended to disperse the most. Since younger geese did not have a social status established, they were often found on the edges of colonies where predation risk was increased.
During migration, geese from other regions was sometimes found in the geese populations studied in Wild Goose Dilemmas. It was hypothesized that these geese did not intend to arrive in these areas, but were simply blown off course because of severe weather and heavy winds that directed them to a different site. Upon seeing conspecifics, they landed and stayed with their new population.