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ABSTRACT The white-winged dove ( Zenaida asiatica) serves an important ecological role as a diurnal pollinator of the saguaro cactus in the Sonoran desert and an economic role as a highly sought after game bird in North America. White-winged doves are intimately linked to anthropogenic changes on the landscape and because of this, have experienced dramatic population fluctuations over the last 75 years in response, both positively and negatively, to anthropogenic changes on the landscape. To understand the factors driving population growth and decline of migratory species like the white-winged dove, it is imperative we study resource use on both their breeding and wintering grounds. To understand how populations are distributed on the wintering grounds, we tested an alternative to band recovery approaches by using stable isotope analysis. Before we could use isotope analysis to link breeding and wintering locations for this species, we first needed to determine if hydrogen (δ2H) and carbon (δ13C) stable isotopes in feather tissue (δ2Hf and δ13Cf, respectively) could differentiate among populations of white-winged doves across their breeding range in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. δ2Hf and δ13Cf not only differentiated between populations of white-winged doves that breed in the United States, but δ2Hf also provided further differentiation in white-winged doves that breed in native Sonoran Desert and agricultural habitats in the western portion of their range. Ecological processes associated with desert resources and anthropogenic influences, specifically saguaro cacti and irrigated crops, largely determined δ2Hf in some white-winged doves in Arizona whereas δ2H of precipitation (δ2Hp) largely determined δ2Hf of doves in New Mexico and Texas. This study highlights the usefulness of stable isotope analysis to differentiate populations of animals across the landscape and the insight isotopes can provide into habitat and resource use. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The geographical expansion of white-winged doves ( Zenaida asiatica) in North America has attracted the attention of biologists and sportsmen because of their recreational and aesthetic value; however, data on factors driving the spatial spread of this species are lacking. We examined spatial and temporal patterns of range expansion for white-winged doves along the northern edge of their geographical range from 1979 to 2007 and used a dynamic occupancy model to estimate when and where doves would be found along an expansion gradient. Location Southern half of the USA. Methods We modelled spatial variation in the range expansion of white-winged doves from 1979 to 2007 using data from the North American Breeding Bird Surveys ( BBS) and distance from initial population centre, area of urban land cover, and ecoregion. We used a robust design occupancy analysis to estimate species expansion rate based on a model set grounded in broad-scale conditions likely to drive dove distribution. We evaluated our best fitting model (using Akaike's information criterion adjusted for small sample size) by comparing estimates to actual observations in 1993 and 2007 using area under the curve ( AUC) metrics from receiver-operating characteristic plots. Results Our spatial distribution model indicated that range expansion of white-winged doves was primarily influenced by distance from the core population centre, with additive effects of ecoregion and land cover. In 1979, white-winged doves were present in 12% of survey locations, whereas presence increased to 41% by 2007. Across all ecoregions, urban land cover was positively related to probability of occupancy. We evaluated our model for 1993 and 2007 by comparing derived occupancy estimates to sightings of white-winged doves within our sample hexagons using BBS survey data. Based on high AUC statistics (> 0.85), we concluded that our model was useful for accurately predicting range expansion. Main conclusions Estimating occurrence and range expansion of white-winged doves and other expanding/invasive avian species at large spatial scales can be effectively conducted using BBS data. Using these nationwide, long-term survey data to relate expansion to a suite of conditions likely to drive population dynamics is an effective approach to developing predictive models of range expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Range expansion across a heterogeneous landscape may depend on the habitat selected and used by the expanding species. If habitat selection influences range expansion then localities colonized by a species should contain a greater proportion of favoured habitat (and less non-habitat) than other nearby localities not colonized. White-winged doves ( Zenaida asiatica) and Eurasian collared doves ( Streptopelia decaocto) are two bird species that provide an excellent opportunity to test this hypothesis, because the geographic ranges of both species have been expanding in North America for more than two decades. Continental USA. We used distribution data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey to test whether the landscapes occupied by each species contained a greater proportion of favoured habitat (urban land, grassland/pasture, shrub land and cropland) and a lower proportion of non-habitat (forest land) than landscapes where doves were not found. We tested each species separately in each of three broad expansion areas, namely East, Central and West. We also compared rates of spatial spread between expansion areas and between the two species. As predicted, both species tended to occupy landscapes with greater proportions of urban land, shrub land and cropland but with less forest land compared with landscapes without doves, in all three expansion areas. Contrary to prediction, occupied landscapes tended to have slightly less grassland/pasture than unoccupied landscapes. Rates of spread differed between the two species and among expansion areas. Range expansion and the extent to which a species fills or saturates its range are influenced by the habitat ecology of the expanding species. Species colonize localities based on the availability of suitable habitat. However, the role of habitat in a species' range expansion does depend somewhat on the greater geographical setting. Over large regional and geographical scales, range expansion (rate of spread and saturation) may proceed unevenly, suggesting that range expansion is a very dynamic and context-specific process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]