Birds of Two Oceans? Trans-Andean and Divergent Migration of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger cinerascens) from the Peruvian Amazon

We are grateful for assistance from John Terborgh, Antonio Guerra Rosas, Marcos Maguiña, Inés Nole, John Takekawa, Lisa Ferguson, Juan Kapeshi, Nikanor Kapeshi, Cathy Bykowsky, Chi (Tim) Lam, Scott Robinson, Fabrice Schmitt, and Cesar Flores. Alex Jahn, Ugo Mellone, Sergio Lambertucci and one anonymous reviewer provided comments that helped improve the manuscript.Seasonal flooding compels some birds that breed in aquatic habitats in Amazonia to undertake annual migrations, yet we know little about how the complex landscape of the Amazon region is used seasonally by these species. The possibility of trans-Andes migration for Amazonian breeding birds has largely been discounted given the high geographic barrier posed by the Andean Cordillera and the desert habitat along much of the Pacific Coast. Here we demonstrate a trans-Andes route for Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger cinerascens) breeding on the Manu River (in the lowlands of Manu National Park, Perú), as well as divergent movement patterns both regionally and across the continent. Of eight skimmers tracked with satellite telemetry, three provided data on their outbound migrations, with two crossing the high Peruvian Andes to the Pacific. A third traveled over 1800 km to the southeast before transmissions ended in eastern Paraguay. One of the two trans-Andean migrants demonstrated a full round-trip migration back to its tagging location after traveling down the Pacific Coast from latitude 9° South to latitude 37° S, spending the austral summer in the Gulf of Arauco, Chile. This is the first documentation of a trans-Andes migration observed for any bird breeding in lowland Amazonia. To our knowledge, this research also documents the first example of a tropical-breeding waterbird migrating out of the tropics to spend the non-breeding season in the temperate summer, this being the reverse pattern with respect to seasonality for austral migrants in general.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee

Waterbird community structure and habitat availability in Lago Salso (Gargano National Prk, Apulia, Southern Italy)

The structure of the waterbird community at Lago Salso in Southern Italy, Apulia, was surveyed over a 4-year period (2003-2006), during the breeding season (May-July). Lago Salso is an artificial lake with high water levels. Flooding of the surrounding fields, due to copious seasonal rainfalls, occasionally forms vast swampy wetlands around Lago Salso. The variation in waterbird structure and composition, concomitantly with the occurrence of these flooded habitats, is described. In particular, during 2003-2005 there was little variation in annual species richness and diversity at the lake. However, in 2006 the waterbird community changed in species composition and significantly increased in species richness (from 21 ± 3.8 to 32 ± 2.5 species) and abundance values (from 222 ± 167 to 988 ± 42.4 individuals) with the presence of wet grasslands. Lago Salso is one of the most Important Bird Areas on the Italian peninsula, and the occurrence of several species with high conserva- tion value almost exclusive to wet grassland has important implications from a conservation point of view. The formations of temporary flooded meadows are rare in the south of Italy, and our results emphasize the need to define management guidelines for the maintenance of such flooded grasslands

Diversity and Habitat Distribution of Birds in Coastal Marshes and Comparisons with Surrounding Upland Habitats in Southeastern South America

We studied variation in bird assemblages with plant associations for three different coastal marshes from Southeastern South America (SESA) and assessed how marsh bird assemblages related to nearby upland bird assemblages. We surveyed bird species and plant structure along the tidal gradient of each locality from the low tide level to the upper habitats bordering coastal marshes. Twenty species frequently used coastal marshes, including relatively few migratory species. We found that birds occurring in SESA coastal marshes do not have distributions constrained to coastal marshes. Nonetheless, four bird assemblages were recognized in association with vegetation types and/or sites. Among the recorded coastal marsh species, the bay-capped wren-spinetail (Spartonoica maluroides) is both the most frequent and the most habitat constrained. Bird richness increases steadily along the tidal gradient associated with the increase in vegetation structure, suggesting that bird richness is directly explained by vegetation and indirectly by the physical conditions influencing vegetation structure. Results highlight the importance of SESA middle marshes as habitat for conservation of some threatened SESA grassland birds.Fil: Isacch, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Cardoni, Daniel Augusto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Iribarne, Oscar Osvaldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin