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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple
countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of
tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information
is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers.We synthesized
current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds
and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to
compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory
links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in
Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links
to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country
(across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries
and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly
for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete.
An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked
per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was
biased toward larger bodied species.We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the
migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43
species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g.,
Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future
tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations
in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key
policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of
Prey in Africa and Eurasia.
Description
Keywords
Bird migration Convention on Migratory Species Geopolitical connectivity Migratory links Migratory species Science–policy interface Tracking data
Citation
Guilherme, J. L., Jones, V. R., Catry, I., Beal, M., Dias, M. P., Oppel, S., Vickery, J. A., Hewson, C. M., Butchart, S. H. M., & Rodrigues, A. S. L. (2022). Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. Conservation Biology, 1. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14002
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd