Longevity, movements, and site fidelity in Wandering Tattlers Heteroscelus incanus

Gill, Robert; Tomkovich, Pavel; David, Reginald; Dementyev, Maksim; Dibben-Young, Arleone

Few shorebird species are as dispersed during both the breeding and non-breeding seasons as is the Wandering Tattler Heteroscelus incanus. Nesting occurs in North America in mostly montane regions of the Yukon, Canada, and throughout neighboring Alaska with isolated populations found across the Bering Strait south to the Koryak Highland in Far Eastern Russia. It is the only shorebird having major fractions of its population occurring on both continental and insular shores during the non-breeding season, overlapping broadly in western Oceania with the range of the Grey-tailed Tattler H. brevipes (Gill et al. 2002, Bamford et al. 2008, Branson et al. 2010). These traits, coupled with the species’ generally solitary nature and small population size – likely in the few tens of thousands – have severely limited access to knowledge of its natural history. Here we report the first information on longevity, movements, and site fidelity of Wandering Tattlers based on marked individuals.Between 1997 and 1999 we (RG, PT, MD) studied the nesting ecology of Wandering Tattlers and Surfbirds Aphriza virgata at Turquoise Lake, Alaska (60.780°N, 154.011°W; Fig. 1, see Gill & Tomkovich 2004 for details of the area). During the three field seasons we captured 35 adult tattlers and uniquely marked each based on placement of a green Darvic flag, a single Darvic band from among six different colors, and a numbered metal USGS band (Table 1). In 1997, we caught an additional six adults that were marked with a single marking scheme not distinguishable to individual.Adult tattlers at Turquoise Lake were classified as either local breeders or as transients based on the frequency with which we saw them again at the banding site (Fig. 1). Local breeders frequently visited the outlet of the lake throughout the breeding season; transients were not seen again the year they were marked but several were seen in subsequent years, but only in early spring before dispersing to unknown breeding areas. Local breeders exhibited a high degree of breeding site faithfulness with 9 of 12 (75%) birds found nesting at Turquoise Lake the year following their initial capture at the site.

Longevity, movements, and site fidelity in Wandering Tattlers Heteroscelus incanus

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