@article{47eeb7d661ee4271b224d843df2a9db4,
title = "GPS tracking and population genomics suggest itinerant breeding across drastically different habitats in the Phainopepla",
abstract = "Migratory birds generally divide the annual cycle between discrete breeding and nonbreeding ranges. Itinerant breeders, however, reproduce twice at different geographic locations, migrating between them. This unusual flexibility in movement ecology and breeding biology suggests that some species can rapidly modulate the conflicting physiological and behavioral traits required for migration and reproduction. The Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), a songbird of the southwestern USA, has long been suspected to breed first in desert habitats in spring, then migrate to woodland habitats to breed again in summer. However, direct evaluation of movement and gene flow among individuals breeding in different locations has previously been logistically intractable. We deployed GPS tags on free-flying Phainopeplas in southern California, all of which migrated to hypothesized woodland breeding habitats after desert breeding (an average distance of 232 km). GPS data also revealed previously unknown fall and spring stopover sites. Population genomic analyses revealed no genetic differentiation among desert and woodland breeding populations, indicating significant movement and gene flow across the region. Finally, we used random forest analyses to quantify substantial environmental differences among temporal stages. Our results provide direct evidence that individual Phainopeplas do indeed move between 2 drastically different breeding habitats in the same year, representing a rare and extreme example of life-history flexibility.",
keywords = "GPS tracking, Phainopepla, Phainopepla, bosques aleatorios, gen{\'o}mica poblacional, historia de vida, itinerant breeding, life history, population genomics, random forest, rastreo por GPS, reproducci{\'o}n itinerante",
author = "Baldassarre, {Daniel T.} and Leonardo Campagna and Thomassen, {Henri A.} and Atwell, {Jonathan W.} and Miyoko Chu and Crampton, {Lisa H.} and Fleischer, {Robert C.} and Christina Riehl",
note = "Funding Information: Funding statement: D.T.B. was supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. R.C.F. was supported by Friends of the National Zoo. Neither of our funders had any influence on the content of the submitted manuscript, nor required approval of the final manuscript to be published. Ethics statement: Research methods were approved by Princeton University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocol #2091F-17 and authorized by federal and state scientific permits. Author contributions: D.T.B. conceived the study, collected and analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript; L.C. and H.A.T. analyzed data; J.W.A., M.C., L.H.C., and R.C.F. collected data; C.R. coordinated the study. All authors gave final approval for publication. Funding Information: Glenn Walsberg provided critical advice at all stages of the project. Al Uy and CJ Battey provided comments on an early draft of the manuscript. Nathan Mansor, Jennifer Wilcox, Elsa Chen, and Alma Schrage helped collect data in the field. Rob Fulton, the staff of the California State University Desert Studies Center, and the staff of the University of California, Los Angeles La Kretz Field Station, provided logistical support in the field. Lauren Silvernail provided logistical support at home. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Tejon Ranch Conservancy provided access to private land. Funding statement: D.T.B. was supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. R.C.F. was supported by Friends of the National Zoo. Neither of our funders had any influence on the content of the submitted manuscript, nor required approval of the final manuscript to be published. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} American Ornithological Society 2019.",
year = "2019",
month = oct,
day = "17",
doi = "10.1093/auk/ukz058",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "136",
journal = "Auk",
issn = "0004-8038",
publisher = "Ornithological Societies of North America",
number = "4",
}