Literature cited 1 Webster, M. S., Marra, P. P., Haig, S. M., Bensch, S. & Holmes, R. T. Links between worlds: unraveling migratory connectivity. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17, 76–83 (2002). 2 Faaborg, J. et al. Long-term decline of a winter-resident bird community in Puerto Rico. Biodiversity and Conservation 22, 63–75 (2013). 3 Bouten, W., Baaij, E. W., Shamoun-Baranes, J. & Camphuysen, K. C. J. A flexible GPS tracking system for studying bird behaviour at multiple scales. J Ornithol 154, 571–580 (2012). 4 Ambrosini, R., Møller, A. P. & Saino, N. A quantitative measure of migratory connectivity. Journal of Theoretical Biology 257, 203–211 (2009). Acknowledgements & Funding We thank M. van den Tillaart and L. Meczarski of Lotek Wireless Inc. who provided technical support. This research was supported by grants from the Smithsonian Institution’s Competitive Grants Program for Science awarded to M.T.H and P.P.M, and the National Science Foundation. Miniaturized GPS Tags Identify Non-breeding Territories of a Small Breeding Migratory Songbird Michael T. Hallworth & Peter P. Marra Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC 20008 Migratory Connectivity Project - Introduction - Ovenbird with PinPoint-10 GPS tag Current knowledge of when and where migratory animals go throughout their annual cycle, i.e. migratory connectivity, is highly limited1. Yet this information is urgently needed given that many songbird species are exhibiting significant population declines2. Unfortunately, identifying locations of individuals during subsequent periods of the annual cycle, such as on the non- breeding grounds with high spatial resolution, has been only possible with large-bodied species (e.g., mammals, raptors, seabirds). Here, we tested and deployed a newly developed miniaturized tracking device that weighs ~1 g, combines archival technology with GPS accuracy (~10 m) and can be placed on small songbirds weighing <20 g. Until now, the smallest comparable device available was ~12 g and could only be placed on animals weighing at least 250 g3. Newly developed PinPoint-10 GPS tag which weighs ~1g and has ~10m accuracy Objectives 1) Identify non-breeding territories of Ovenbirds captured while breeding within two widely separated populations (~2000 km). 2) Characterize the environmental attributes of non-breeding territories using remote sensing. 3) Quantify the strength of migratory connectivity. - Methods - We deployed archival GPS tags on Ovenbirds (Seuirus aurocapilla) during the 2013 breeding season (May-June) at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH (n = 24) and Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary in MD (n = 24). We attempted to re-capture the Ovenbirds the subsequent year to recover the GPS tags and download the data. The GPS tags were scheduled to take location information every 28 days from 1 July 2013 until 10 Mar 2014. Environmental Attributes Remote sensing was used to quantify the following non-breeding attributes: -Elevation (m) -Distance to coastline (km) -Vegetation cover (%) Migratory connectivity A Mantel test (rM) was used to determine the strength of migratory connectivity4. rM Values close to 1 indicate a strong correlation between breeding and non-breeding distance matrices (i.e., individuals breeding in close proximity also winter in close proximity). - Results - Non-breeding territory attributes Hubbard Brook Exp. Forest, NH n = 5 Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary, MD n = 10 Difference (95 % CI) Elevation (m) 282.66 (195.68 : 367.88) 38.75 (16.33 : 45.47) 243.91 (154.61 : 332.13) Distance to Coastline (km) 17.27 (7.26 : 28.46) 24.40 (10.08 : 39.33) 7.13 (−10.94 : 24.70) High Vegetation Cover (%) 0.296 (0.08 : 0.56) 0.270 (0.13 : 0.41) 0.026 (−0.32 : 0.22) We recovered 15 GPS tags in 2014 (NH: n = 5, MD: n = 10). Ovenbirds breeding in New Hampshire wintered primarily on the island of Hispaniola, while birds breeding in Maryland wintered in Cuba and Florida (Fig. 1). Overall, Ovenbirds exhibited stron