Foraging distribution of flying seabirds is constrained by environmental factors influencing individual decision-making. This must be particularly true during the breeding period, when individuals face additional limitations imposed by their central-place foraging behaviour. We used GPS data loggers and Argos PTTs to track the foraging flights of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) during the chick-rearing period of 2011–2014 in the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean). We identified main areas used by tracked birds and characterised their productivity patterns. Based on a spatial seascape approach of flight costs varying with time, shaped by environmental processes as winds, we also estimated flight costs to reach foraging grounds in outward and return trips from the colony. Individuals repeatedly used the closest areas on the Iberian continental shelf. However, sporadic and favourable wind conditions facilitated low-cost flight to more distant and equally productive areas of the western North African shelf.

飞行海鸟的觅食分布受到影响个人决策的环境因素的限制。在繁殖期间，当个体面临着中心地觅食行为带来的额外限制时，这一点必须尤其正确。我们使用GPS数据记录仪和Argos PTT跟踪了巴利阿里剪切水（Puffinus mauretanicus）在2011-2014年巴利阿里群岛（西地中海）的雏鸡饲养期间。我们确定了被追踪鸟类使用的主要区域并描述了它们的生产力模式。基于随时间变化的飞行成本的空间海景方法，并受环境过程（如风）的影响，我们还估算了到达殖民地向外和回返觅食场的飞行成本。人们反复使用伊比利亚大陆架上最近的区域。但是，零星的和有利的风力条件促进了低成本的航班飞往北非西部大陆架更遥远，生产力更高的地区。