Movement patterns of sparrows in the central Monte desert: between and within species differences

M. CECILIA SAGARIO; VICTOR R. CUETO; JAVIER LOPEZ DE CASENAVE

EMU

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Lugar: Collingwood; Año: 2014

0158-4197

Accurate knowledge about the movement of passerine populations in the Southern Hemisphere migration systems is limited due to movement pattern differences both between and within species and populations. In temperate South America, species? migration status is normally established by local changes in abundance and species occurrence, but differences at population level have seldom been tested. We banded and monitored individuals of the Many-coloured Chaco-Finch (Saltatricula multicolor, MCCF), the Ringed Warbling-Finch (Poospiza torquata, RWF), and the Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis, RCS) in a temperate locality of the central Monte desert, Argentina, to evaluate differences in site-attachment between and within species. We documented resident populations of the three species, whose juveniles show low site-attachment. Also, there was a high income of mobile individuals of RWF and RCS during the non-breeding season. We confirmed population partial migration involving different subspecies of RCS, and presumably also within RWF and a resident subspecies of RCS. Our results provide a fruitful scenario for comparisons between as well as within species / subspecies in order to understand evolution of migration in temperate South America. Also, we discuss whether the entrance of mobile individuals during the non-breeding season may be sporadically limited as has been also found in arid regions of Australia and Africa.