Breeding habitat preference and foraging of the Cyprus Wheatear Oenanthe cypriaca and niche partitioning in comparison with migrant Oenanthe species on Cyprus

Niche partitioning has been examined in breeding bird communities and in winter quarters, but has received less attention when comparing a resident breeder and migrants during spring. Here, such an assemblage of species of the same genus (Oenanthe) and guild were analysed on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Northern Wheatear O. oenanthe and Eastern Black-Eared Wheatear O. hispanica melanoleuca were migrants, while Cyprus Wheatear O. cypriaca was resident. Migrant wheatears were more common in open habitats without trees, with a lower proportion of vegetation in the 10 cm layer, less tree and bush cover, a higher proportion of herbaceous layer, and a higher amount of bare areas. By using a discriminant function, we found that O. oenanthe was least tolerant towards a high proportion of bush/tree cover, and O. cypriaca was most tolerant, with O. h. melanoleuca in between. Also, O. oenanthe tolerated the least proportion of vegetation in the lowest layer, and O. h. melanoleuca the highest. O. oenanthe hunted more often by hop-and-peck and O. cypriaca more often used sallying and perch-and-pounce. O. oenanthe was the most ground-dwelling species with low perch heights and highest number of hops per minute and hops per movement, while O. cypriaca was the most arboreal species with the highest perches. Mean foraging rate did not differ between the species. A principal component analysis followed by a discriminant function showed that O. cypriaca has a high amount of aerial sallying and perch-pounce hunting behaviour with fewer hops, while O. oenanthe represents the contrary with hop-and-peck movements on the ground and with fewer flights. The data further indicate a clearer separation between O. oenanthe and O. cypriaca while O. h. melanoleuca lies in between utilising both foraging modes.