  Quantifying and comparing patterns of dynamical ecological systems require
averaging over measurable quantities. For example, to infer variation in
movement and behavior, metrics such as step length and velocity are averaged
over large ensembles. Yet, in nonergodic systems such averaging is
inconsistent; thus, identifying ergodicity breaking is essential in ecology.
Using rich high-resolution movement datasets ($>\! 7 \times 10^7$
localizations) from 70 individuals and continuous-time random walk modeling, we
find subdiffusive behavior and ergodicity breaking in the localized movement of
three species of avian predators. Small-scale, within-patch movement was found
to be qualitatively different, not inferrable and separated from large-scale
inter-patch movement. 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 with no
typical waiting time at the local scale.
