Geolocator Tracking and Stable Isotope Analysis Suggest Mixed Migration Strategies in White‐Shouldered Starlings (<i>Sturnia sinensis</i>)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT The East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF) is one of the least studied flyways, especially for migratory passerines. A better understanding of the migratory behaviour of birds along the EAAF is critical to inform conservation efforts and to improve the understanding of the evolution of migratory behaviour. White‐shouldered starlings (Sturnia sinensis) breed in southern China and northern Vietnam, with at least some populations migrating to distinct wintering grounds. Using a combination of extrinsic (geolocators) and intrinsic markers (stable isotopes), we tested whether a presumed resident breeding population in Hong Kong is resident or migratory. We discovered that most tagged individuals (7/8) migrated southwest from Hong Kong to winter in Vietnam/Cambodia up to 2013 km from their breeding grounds. We also found evidence of an alternative migration pathway, with one individual migrating northeast to overwinter in southern China. Stable isotope analyses of feathers revealed that the northeast‐migrating individual had different δ2H and δ34S values than those migrating southeast in that year (but had similar isotope values in the previous year). Based on isotope data alone, a second individual was identified who had distinct δ2H and δ34S values between years, suggesting that this individual also switched wintering grounds between the two breeding seasons. Together our results confirm that the Hong Kong breeding population is migratory, and both geolocator and stable isotope data suggest that the Hong Kong population of this species might host at least two different migration strategies, with some individuals switching their wintering grounds between years.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".