The research system.

A - Map of the Hula Valley, Israel and the surrounding area. The red star represents the location of the Little Swifts’ breeding colony. The blue star depicts the location of the radar. White markings indicate the locations of the antennas of the ATLAS system. B – The BirdScan-MR1 radar. C - The location of the research system in northeastern Israel within the Middle East, indicated by a red star,. D - A Little Swift with an ATLAS tag.

Foraging range in relation to insect abundance.

Differences in the movement routes of two individuals (marked in light blue and orange) on two consecutive days that were characterized by large differences in insect MTR. A – 09.04.2019 (average MTR=1904.2 insects km-1 hr-1). B – 10.04.2019 (average MTR=983.5 insects km-1 hr-1).

Insect Movement Traffic Rate (MTR) and its effects on the aerial foraging of Little Swifts.

A - Average daily insect abundance in relation to an ordinal date. Triangles represent days when data allowed examining swift movement in relation to insect MTR. Insect MTR varied across days within the swifts’ breeding season by more than an order of magnitude. B - The effect of daily insect MTR on the average daily flight distance from the breeding colony. C - The effect of daily insect MTR on the maximal daily flight distance from the breeding colony. D - The effect of insect MTR on the average daily frequency of visits at the breeding colony; inset: coefficient value and confidence intervals of the coefficient resulting from the model testing the effects of insect MTR and distance from the breeding colony on the frequency of visits. E - The relationship between the time of departure from the breeding colony in the morning after the overnight stay and the time of arrival to the colony prior to the overnight stay the previous evening. F - The effect of insect MTR on the daily average distance between foraging individuals; inset: coefficient value and confidence intervals of the coefficient resulting from the model testing the effects of insect MTR and distance from the colony on the distance between individuals.

- Summary of the statistical analyses.

- Model selection table for independent variables explaining colony visit frequency (Models with delta AIC < 2).

- An expected increase in the average distance between individuals with an increase in the distance from the breeding colony (black circle in the center of the figure).

- The effect of daily insect MTR on the average night arrival time to the breeding colony.