Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-59lmv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-09-06T18:52:49.443Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Migration in South America: an overview of the austral system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

R. Terry Chesser
R. Terry Chesser
Affiliation:
Museum of Natural Science and Department of Zoology and Physiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803–3216, U.S.A.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Austral migrants are species that breed in temperate areas of South America and migrate north, towards or into Amazonia, for the southern winter. Migrations among these species are the most extensive of Southern Hemisphere migrations, and the austral system represents a third major migration system, in the sense that the term has been applied to Northern Hemisphere temperate-tropical migration. The geography of South America greatly influences the austral system. Lack of east-west geographical barriers and the shape of the continent promote a pattern of partially overlapping breeding and wintering ranges. The suboscine family Tyrannidae, the tyrant-flycatchers, is the largest group of austral migrants, with other major families including Emberizidae, Anatidae, Furnariidae, Accipitridae and Hirundinidae. Tyrant-flycatchers constitute more than one-half of the passerine austral migrants and roughly one-third of total austral migrants, a taxonomic domination seen in no other global migration system. Parallels exist, however, between austral migration and the Nearctic and Palearctic systems. Many of the same families, including Hirundinidae, Anatidae and Charadriidae, exhibit similarly high degrees of migratory behavi-our in each system. Passerine migration in the austral system is similar in numbers to that of the Nearctic-Neotropical system, but species migrate shorter distances and breed in more open and scrubby habitats. Possible differences in year-round resource availability between South American and North American temperate forests, in addition to differing availability of these habitats, may contribute to the low numbers of forest-dwelling austral migrants.

Information

Type
Growing Points in Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 4 , Issue 2-3: Neotropical Migrants , September 1994 , pp. 91 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Birdlife International 1994

References

de Azara, F. (1802–1805) Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los páxaros del Paraguay y Río de la Plata, 1–3. Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Ibarra.Google Scholar
Belton, W. (1984) Birds of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 1: Rheidae through Furnariidae. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 178: 369–636.Google Scholar
Belton, W. (1985) Birds of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 2: Formicariidae through Corvidae Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 180: 1–242.Google Scholar
Benson, C. W. (1982) Migrants in the Afrotropical region south of the Equator. Ostrich 53: 31–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapin, J. P. (1932) The birds of the Belgian Congo, 1. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 65: 1–756.Google Scholar
Dabbene, R. (1910) Ornitología argentina. Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires 11: 1–513.Google Scholar
Dorst, J. (1962) The migrations of birds. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.Google Scholar
Dowsett, R. J. (1988) Migration among South African land birds. Proc. Internatn. Orn. Congr. 19: 765–777.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, J. W. (1980a) Wintering of North American tyrant flycatchers in the Neotropics. Pp.67–78 in Keast, A. and Morton, E. S., eds. Migrant birds in the Neotropics. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, J. W. (1980b) Foraging behavior of Neotropical tyrant flycatchers. Condor 82: 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fullagar, P. J., Lowe, K. W. and Davies, S. J. J. F. (1988) Intracontinental migration of Australian birds. Proc. Internatn. Orn. Congr. 19: 791–801.Google Scholar
Holmes, R. T., Bonney, R. E. and Pacala, S. W. (1979) Guild structure of the Hubbard Brook bird community: a multivariate approach. Ecology 60: 512–520.Google Scholar
Hueck, K. and Siebert, P. (1972) Vegetationskarte von Sudamerika. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag.Google Scholar
Karr, J. R. (1976) Seasonality, resource availability, and community diversity in tropical bird communities. Amer. Nat. 110: 973–994.Google Scholar
Keast, A. (1980a) Synthesis: ecological basis and evolution of the Nearctic-Neotropical bird migration system. Pp.559–576 in Keast, A. and Morton, E. S., eds. Migrant birds in the Neotropics. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Keast, A. (1980b) Migratory Parulidae: what can species co-occurrence in the North reveal about ecological plasticity and wintering patterns? Pp.457–476 in Keast, A. and Morton, E. S., eds. Migrant birds in the Neotropics. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Keast, A. and Morton, E., eds. (1980) Migrant birds in the Neotropics. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Lincoln, F. C. (1939) The migration of American birds. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Marantz, C. A. and Remsen, J. V. (1991) Seasonal distribution of the Slaty Elaenia, a little-known austral migrant of South America. J. Field Orn. 62: 162–172.Google Scholar
McClure, H. E. (1974) Migration and survival of the birds of Asia. Bangkok, Thailand: U.S. Army Medical Comp., South-East Asia Treaty Organization Medical Project.Google Scholar
Moreau, R. E. (1966) The bird faunas of Africa and its islands. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Moreau, R. E. (1972) The Palearctic-African bird migration systems. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rappole, J. H., Morton, E. S., Lovejoy, T. E. and Ruos, J. L. (1983) Nearctic avian migrants in the Neotropics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Rowley, I. (1974) Bird life. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Sick, H. (1968) Vogelwanderungen im kontinental Südamerika. Vogelwarte 24: 217–243.Google Scholar
van Velzen, W. T. and van Velzen, A. C., eds. (1983) Forty-sixth Breeding Bird Census. Amer. Birds 37: 49–108.Google Scholar
van Velzen, W. T. and van Velzen, A. C., eds. (1984) Forty-seventh Breeding Bird Census. Amer. Birds 38: 64–138.Google Scholar
Vuilleumier, F. (1985) Forest birds of Patagonia: ecological geography, speciation, endemism, and faunal history. Pp.255–304 in Buckley, P. A., Foster, M. S., Morton, E. S., Ridgely, R. S. and Buckley, F. G., eds. Neotropical ornithology. Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union (Orn. Monogr. 36).Google Scholar
Wetmore, A. (1926) Observations on the birds of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile. Bull. U.S. Natn. Mus. 133: 1–448.Google Scholar
Willis, E. O. (1988) Land-bird migration in Sao Paulo, south-eastern Brazil. Proc. Internatn. Orn. Congr. 19: 756–764.Google Scholar
WMO (1975) Atlas climático de America del Sur. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization.Google Scholar
WMO (1979) Climatic atlas of North and Central America. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization.Google Scholar
Zimmer, J. T. (1931-1955) Studies of Peruvian birds, Nos. 1–66. Amer. Mus. Novit. [between numbers 500 and 1723 inclusive].Google Scholar
Zimmer, J. T. (1938) Notes on migrations of South American birds. Auk 55: 405–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar