Biodiversity Informatics

Despite the large body of literature on avian migratory behavior, there is little information about stopover sites during bird movement, including the population-level drivers of breeding grounds and wintering grounds. Stopovers play an essential role in bird migratory site chains for energy supply and rest. There is an urgent need to identify and protect stopover sites to secure the long-term sustainability of migratory network connectivity and stability. To address this challenge, we reconstructed a migration network and identified geographic hotspots denoted as stopover sites. And we analyzed the high-density population movements of 52 focal migratory bird species using comprehensive observation data from eBird through PageRank algorithm. Furthermore, potential alternative stopover sites were explored using a word embedding technique based on geo-functional similarity. Our study was conducted in North and Central America during a three-year period and revealed three key stopover areas, including Florida peninsula and its inland, the region of Central America, and the region near Puget Sound. Results from this study can be used for conservation prioritization guidance, active surveillance of bird pathogens, and bird management.