Hidden space use behaviors of a nonbreeding migratory bird: The role of environment and social context

Movement behavior strongly mediates species and environment interactions, yet our understanding is constrained by challenges tracking space use at fine spatiotemporal resolutions. Using an automated telemetry array, we quantified variation in and drivers of space use for a nonbreeding population of migratory bird, the American redstart Setophaga ruticilla. We identified three distinct and common behaviors – territoriality, floating, and transience – that were governed primarily by precipitation-driven resource availability. Within seasons, declines in weekly resources increased the prevalence of forays and the area of space utilized. Individuals adopting these alternative space use behaviors were less likely to maintain body condition throughout the nonbreeding season, which is expected to negatively influence fitness and survival. Our study demonstrates that nonbreeding migratory birds exhibit a high degree of plasticity in space use that is driven by both resource availability and the..., Study System
This study was conducted January-May of 2016-2019 on a nonbreeding population of American redstarts at the Font Hill Nature Preserve on the southwest coast of, St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica (18° 02’ N, 77° 57’ W, < 5 m above sea level). Redstarts are relatively easy to capture, tag, and monitor, allowing us to not only track their changes in space use within and between seasons but also to investigate the consequences of these behaviors. Resource availability in our Jamaican system can vary widely within and between nonbreeding seasons. Further, though most redstarts are territorial in this population [55], redstarts have been shown to exhibit a diverse mix of space use behaviors that range from territoriality, occupation of home ranges, mixed species flocking, and floating [55–58].
To quantify the movement behavior of individuals, we employed two tracking methodologies: one based on manual hand tracking and another automated telemetry using a network of 5 automated rece..., , # Data from: Hidden space use behaviors of a nonbreeding migratory bird: The role of environment and social context

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gb5mkkwx1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gb5mkkwx1)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: analysis.r

**Description:** R script for analyzing space use patterns and foraging behavior of American Redstarts. The script requires R (version 3.5 or higher) and the following packages: tidyverse, lme4, sjPlot, ggstance, patchwork, ggdist, emmeans.

The analysis includes:

1. Data processing: Summarizes seasonal NDVI (weeks 1-12, pre-migratory period), calculates median daily forays per individual, and merges environmental and movement data with individual metadata.
2. Descriptive visualizations: Generates density plots of home range sizes and foray frequencies across years, and creates boxplots with dot distributions comparing space use metrics by sex, age, and habitat type (dry scrub vs. wet mangrove)....,