  Movement tracks of wild animals frequently fit models of anomalous rather
than simple diffusion, mostly reported as ergodic superdiffusive motion
combining area-restricted search within a local patch and larger-scale
commuting between patches, as highlighted by the L\'evy walk paradigm. Since
L\'evy walks are scale invariant, superdiffusive motion is also expected within
patches, yet investigation of such local movements has been precluded by the
lack of accurate high-resolution data at this scale. Here, using rich
high-resolution movement datasets ($>\! 7 \times 10^7$ localizations) from 70
individuals and continuous-time random walk modeling, we found subdiffusive
behavior and ergodicity breaking in the localized movement of three species of
avian predators. Small-scale, within-patch movement was qualitatively
different, not inferrable and separated from large-scale inter-patch movement
via a clear phase transition. Local search is characterized by long
power-law-distributed waiting times with diverging mean, giving rise to
ergodicity breaking in the form of considerable variability uniquely observed
at this scale. This implies that wild animal movement is scale specific rather
than scale free, with no typical waiting time at the local scale. Placing these
findings in the context of the static-ambush to mobile-cruise foraging
continuum, we verify predictions based on the hunting behavior of the study
species and the constraints imposed by their prey.
