Migratory pathways, stopover zones and wintering destinations of Western European Nightjars Caprimulgus europaeus

Abstract

Little is known about the wintering distribution of the European Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus. We combined geolocator and GPS‐logger data from different sites in Western Europe to analyse migration routes and migration timing of this trans‐equatorial migrant. Nightjars followed a loop migration route during which they cross two ecological barriers, and converged near common stopover zones in Northern, Central and Western Africa, where they stayed for 2–3 weeks. Nightjars used the same stopover sites as several other European migrants, relying on small and discrete wintering areas within the Democratic Republic of Congo. This confirms the importance of these specific zones and highlights the vulnerability of Western European populations to habitat loss in their non‐breeding areas.

Ten years tracking the migrations of small landbirds: Lessons learned in the golden age of bio-logging

“…Since there were far fewer studies using archival GPS and automated telemetry systems, we discuss them broadly. We found 3 studies that used archival GPS tags to track small birds , Siegel et al 2016, and one that used both geolocators and archival GPS tags (Evens et al 2017b). There were 20 studies using automated radio-telemetry systems (Appendix B) to study migration behavior of small landbirds and 2 studies describing automated-telemetry as a tool .…”

Male post‐breeding movements and stopover habitat selection of an endangered short‐distance migrant, the Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax

“…, Evens et al . ). Despite that, knowledge of the stopover ecology of many avian groups and species, and particularly of short‐distance migrants, is still very limited (but see Strandberg et al .…”

“…Recent advances in tracking technology have opened a new door for the study of avian migration (Robinson et al 2010) and stopover ecology of a wider number of migrant species (e.g. Eraud et al 2013, Lemke et al 2013, Evens et al 2017. Despite that, knowledge of the stopover ecology of many avian groups and species, and particularly of short-distance migrants, is still very limited (but see Strandberg et al 2009, Newton et al 2017, R€ oseler et al 2017.…”

Wind‐associated detours promote seasonal migratory connectivity in a flapping flying long‐distance avian migrant

“…In the same line of thinking, relatively high fuelling rates will limit the time and energy spent at stopovers resulting in similar benefits of detoured routes in front of barriers where large fuel loads are required (Lindström et al, ). We note that some northbound nightjars stop for several weeks just before reaching the Sahara in spring, presumably to fuel for the subsequent barrier crossing (Evens et al, ; Jacobsen et al, ; Norevik et al, ). Like nightjars within the Palaearctic–African migration system, common swifts Apus apus undertake large detours via West Africa that, combined with favourable winds for north migration, coincide well with the spring rains in Liberia and the associated massive emergence of aerial insect prey (Åkesson et al, , ).…”

“…Individual positioning data are provided in the original tracking studies (Evens et al, 2017;Jacobsen et al, 2017;Norevik et al, 2017). Location data and raw data for the simulations are available at the Dryad Digital Respository https ://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ms1fm8p (Norevik et al, 2019).…”