Evaluating the effects of moonlight on the vertical flight profiles of three western palaearctic swifts.

Hufkens, Koen; Meier, Christoph M; Evens, Ruben; Arán Paredes, Josefa; Karaardiç, Hakan; Vercauteren, Stef; Van Gysel, Ann; Fox, James W; Pacheco, Carlos Miguel; da Silva, Luis P; Fernandes, Sandra; Henriques, Pedro; Elias, Gonçalo; Costa, Luís T; Poot, Martin; Kearsley, Lyndon (2023). Evaluating the effects of moonlight on the vertical flight profiles of three western palaearctic swifts. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological sciences, 290(2010), p. 20230957. The Royal Society 10.1098/rspb.2023.0957

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Recent studies have suggested the presence of moonlight mediated behaviour in avian aerial insectivores, such as swifts. Here, we use the combined analysis of state-of-the-art activity logger data across three swift species, the common, pallid and alpine swifts, to quantify flight height and activity in responses to moonlight-driven crepuscular and nocturnal light conditions. Our results show a significant response in flight heights to moonlight illuminance for common and pallid swifts, i.e. when moon illuminance increased flight height also increased, while a moonlight-driven response is absent in alpine swifts. We show a weak relationship between night-time illuminance-driven responses and twilight ascending behaviour, suggesting a decoupling of both crepuscular and night-time behaviour. We suggest that swifts optimize their flight behaviour to adapt to favourable night-time light conditions, driven by light-responsive and size-dependent vertical insect stratification and weather conditions.

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