Feather corticosterone levels are related to age and future body condition, but not to subsequent fitness, in a declining migratory songbird

In migratory species, breeding and non-breeding locations are geographically separate, yet the effects of conditions from one stage may carry over to affect a subsequent stage. Ideally, to understand the mechanisms and implications of ‘carry-over effects’, one would need to follow individuals throughout the year, quantify potential environmental causal factors and physiological mediators during multiple life-history stages, and measure downstream fitness. Owing to current limitations of tracking technology, this is impossible for small, long-distance migrants, so indirect methods to characterize carry-over effects are required. Corticosterone (CORT) is a suspected physiological mediator of carry-over effects, but when collected from blood it provides only a physiological snapshot at that point in time. When extracted from feathers, however, feather corticosterone (CORT(f)) provides a measure of responses to stressors from previous, and longer, time periods. We collected feathers grown during two life-history stages (post-breeding and subsequent wintering) from individuals of two age classes of a rapidly declining migratory songbird, the cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulea), on their breeding grounds and quantified CORT(f) concentrations. We then monitored reproduction and survival of individuals and analysed relationships among CORT(f) and age, body condition and future fitness. Compared with older males, second-year males had higher CORT(f) concentrations during both stages. When controlling for age and year, body condition at capture was positively related to CORT(f) concentrations from winter (especially for older birds). However, we found no relationships between CORT(f) and fitness (as defined by reproduction and survival). Thus, elevated CORT may represent a beneficial physiological response (e.g. hyperphagia prior to migration), particularly for certain life-history stages, and may mediate the condition in which individuals transition between stages. But for those birds that survive migration, subsequent fitness is likely determined by more recent events and local conditions (i.e. on breeding grounds), which have the potential to counteract conditions from the winter.