Exploring Differences in Adult Survival and Site Fidelity of Migratory and Non-migratory American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) Populations.

The conservation of a species is reliant on identifying threats to critical vital rates such as survival and dispersal. Accurate estimates of these vital rates and the factors that affect them can be used to better manage populations. The USA Atlantic Coast population of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) benefits from a large-scale conservation effort, but this long-lived species remains especially sensitive to fluctuations in adult survival. The model used here and 8 years of mark-resight data from three breeding populations with varying migration strategies from the United States (migratory; Massachusetts and New Jersey; non-migratory; South Carolina) were used to estimate adult survival and site fidelity. Results indicated a resident population in South Carolina with 100% of the breeding population wintering in that State, a migratory population in Massachusetts with the majority of individuals wintering in Florida (42%), and a partially migratory population in New Jersey with a portion of the breeding population overwintering in that State (33%). Annual adult survival did not vary among populations. Although the average estimate of adult survival was high (0.89), there was an apparent decline in adult survival (from 0.94 to 0.83) over the study period. Given strong site fidelity (0.91), adult mortality is a critical factor for the viability of local populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]