Bird Migration: A New Understanding

345 Pages·2022·13.335 MB·English

by  John H. Rappole

BIRD
Migration

BIRD
Migration
A New
Understanding
JOHN H. RAPPOLE

Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218–4363
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rappole, John H., author.
Title: Bird migration : a new understanding / John H. Rappole.
Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021002624 | ISBN 9781421442389 (hardback) | ISBN
9781421442396 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Birds—Migration.
Classification: LCC QL698.9 .R375 2022 | DDC 598.156/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002624
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
All illustrations not otherwise credited are the author’s.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book.
For more information, please contact Special Sales at [email protected].
Among the most important discoveries for me con-
cerning migratory birds is the central role played by
the distaff members: not “subservient,” not “subordi-
nate,” not “supporting,” but central. Male dominance,
long considered the wellspring of avian interactions
between the sexes, is found to be impotent, at least
during the migrant breeding season. It is females who
call the shots, with all due respect to Konrad Lorenz
and many others. Accordingly, I dedicate this effort
to the extraordinary women who have played central
roles in my own life: my wife, Bonnie Carlson Rappole;
my mother, Francesca Goodell Rappole; my daughter,
Brigetta Rappole Stewart; and my sisters, Francesca
Rappole Wellman Miller and Rosemary Rappole.
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
CHAPTER 1 The Bird Migration Paradigm 1
CHAPTER 2 The Migrant Annual Cycle
According to the Dispersal Theory 8
CHAPTER 3 Fall Migration 17
CHAPTER 4 Wintering Period 38
CHAPTER 5 Spring Migration 77
CHAPTER 6 Breeding Period 95
CHAPTER 7 Postbreeding Period 115
CHAPTER 8 Population Biology 127
CHAPTER 9 Origin and Evolution 162
CHAPTER 10 Biogeography 202
CHAPTER 11 Conservation 221
Coda 263
APPENDIX 1 Common and Scientific Names of
Bird Species Mentioned in the Text 275
APPENDIX 2 A Critical Examination of the
Assumptions in “Temperate Origins
of Long-Distance Seasonal Migration
in New World Songbirds” 279
APPENDIX 3 Notation Corrections for Alan Pine’s
Multiple Carrying Capacity Equations
from “Age-Structured Periodic Breeders” 295
Annotated Bibliography 297
Index 313

Preface
Most people think they know a lot about bird migration. Almost
everyone has seen many explanations for the phenomenon in a variety of
media formats. However, these explanations are based on the premise that
migration is all about weather (Figure P.1). It’s not. Certainly weather, es-
pecially winds aloft, can be important in shaping some movements of some
species some of the time, but it is not the ultimate cause.
Migration is about competition and seasonal change in food resourc-
es. It originates when young birds are forced to move away from the place
where they were born in search of suitable habitat that is not already oc-
cupied by competitors—habitat where they can find mates and raise more
young than they would have been able to had they stayed at home. This
movement, known as “dispersal,” is possible because of a superabundance
of food. Without such a superabundance, the travelers would not get very
far from home. Dispersal is the engine driving migration; seasonal change
in food availability is the enabler. When food becomes superabundant—
that is, available in greater supply than resident birds can consume due
to seasonal climate change—the disperser can move and find new areas
where it is possible to live and breed in the absence of, or at least in a re-
duction of, competition. If the climate changes at some later date, causing
a disappearance of the foods on which the disperser depends, then the dis-
Preface ix