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Vickers, Stephen H., Meehan, Timothy D., Michel, Nicole L., Franco, Aldina M. A. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6055-7378 and Gilroy, James J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7597-5780
(2025)
North American avian species that migrate in flocks show greater long-term non-breeding range shift rates.
Movement Ecology, 13.
ISSN 2051-3933
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Abstract
Background: Many species are exhibiting range shifts associated with anthropogenic change. For migratory species, colonisation of new areas can require novel migratory programmes that facilitate navigation between independently-shifting seasonal ranges. Therefore, in some cases range-shifts may be limited by the capacity for novel migratory programmes to be transferred between generations, which can be genetically and socially mediated. Methods: Here we used 50 years of North American Breeding Bird Survey and Audubon Christmas Bird Count data to test the prediction that breeding and/or non-breeding range-shifts are more prevalent among flocking migrants, which possess a capacity for rapid social transmission of novel migration routes. Results: Across 122 North American bird species, social migration was a significant positive predictor for the magnitude of non-breeding centre of abundance (COA) shift within our study region (conterminous United States and Southern Canada). Across a subset of 81 species where age-structured flocking was determined, migrating in mixed-age flocks produced the greatest shifts and solo migrants the lowest. Flocking was not a significant predictor of breeding COA shifts, which were better explained by absolute population trends and migration distance. Conclusions: Our results suggest that social grouping may play an important role in facilitating non-breeding distributional responses to climate change in migratory species. We highlight the need to gain a better understanding of migratory programme inheritance, and how this influences spatiotemporal population dynamics under environmental change.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Availability of data and materials: Datasets and code used for analysis here are available on GitHub: https://github.com/SHVickers94/Migratory_flocking_MS. Funding information: This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and EnvEast DTP (grant no. NE/L002582/1). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cultural inheritance,distributions,migration,navigation,range dynamics,social behaviour,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Feb 2025 16:46 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Jun 2026 20:32 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98505 |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s40462-024-00527-0 |
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