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Migratory behaviour in birds shows a remarkable variability at species, population and individual levels. Short-distance migrants often adopt a partial migratory strategy and tend to have a flexible migration schedule that allows a more effective response to extreme environmental variations. Weather seasonality and environmental heterogeneity have been reported as significant factors in the diversification of migratory behaviour for Mediterranean migrants, but relatively few studies investigated the migration patterns of non-passerine birds migrating within the Mediterranean basin. In this study, we investigated the migratory strategy of 40 Eurasian Stone-curlews Burhinus oedicnemus tagged with geolocators and GPS-GSM tags and belonging to continental and Mediterranean populations of the Italian peninsula. The proportion of migrants was higher in continental populations, but we observed a significant variability also within Mediterranean populations. All birds spent the winter within the Mediterranean basin. Continental Stone-curlews departed earlier in spring and later in autumn and covered longer distances than those from Mediterranean areas. The speed of migration did not change between seasons for continental birds, while Mediterranean individuals migrated faster in spring. The likelihood of departure for autumn migration of GPS-tagged birds increased when temperatures were near or below 0 °C suggesting that Stone-curlews tend to delay departure until weather conditions worsen abruptly. As a consequence of global warming in the Mediterranean, the frequency of migratory birds in the considered populations might decrease in the near future. This could affect the distribution of species throughout the year and should be taken into account when targeting conservation measures.

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Acoustic analysis and playback experiments do not support the taxonomic revision of the 1 Central and Western Canary Islands subspecies of the Eurasian Stone-curlew (Burhinus o. 2 distinctus) 3 4 Abstract 18 Capsule: Acoustic analysis does not support the elevation of B. o. distinctus to full species. 19 Aims:To verify whether the vocal repertoires of B. o. oedicnemus and B. o. distinctus show 20 biologically significant quantitative and qualitative differences. 21 Methods: Integration of acoustic analysis of some of the most frequently uttered call types recorded 22 in Italy and in Canary Islands with playback experiments. 23 Results: The vocal repertoires of the individuals belonging to the two subspecies were rather 24 similar, but the quantitative analysis of acoustic parameters evidenced some differences between the 25 considered populations. In particular, the three most used call types showed higher frequency and 26 higher utterance rhythm for B. o. distinctus than for B. o. eodicnemus. Playback experiments 27 indicated that individuals from the nominate subspecies responded in the same way to the playback 28 of calls of individuals belonging to both subspecies. 29 Conclusion: Acoustic analysis supports the distinctiveness of Stone-curlew populations from 30 Central and Western Canary Islands, thus confirming the available morphological and genetic data. 31 These results, however, do not suggest the elevation of B. o. distinctus to full species. 32 33