Contrôles par Condition for Guêpier d’Europe

Most encounters are obtained after 2000. They come mainly from May-Aug, peaking in Jul (70% of all records). Most encounters until Jul are based primarily on adults, while those from Aug and early Sep – mainly juveniles. Majority of encounters (ca. 98%) are recorded in C, SC and SW Europe (71, 22, and 5% respectively). Pre-1960 records sample is very limited.  The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years: from 65% in 1961-1990 to about 1% after 1991; those based on alive birds increased from 65% in 1961-1990 to 98% after 1991. The latter is mostly due to ringing recoveries. Shooting as а factor has been largely reduced from 18% in 1961-1990 to almost none after 1991.

Most of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are less than 2000km away (but some are more than 5000km).

Annual Movements for Guêpier d’Europe

Post-breeding dispersal takes place from late Jul, autumn migration in Europe is most intensive Aug-Sep. African wintering grounds are reached as early as Sep, the birds stay there until Mar-May (S Africa) or Apr-May (Sahel). Breeding sites are reached from late Apr (S Europe) to mid/late May in C Europe.

Birds from the recently established and heavily increased population in E Germany are tracked via the W & C Mediterranean Sea and Sahara to their wintering grounds in S Congo/N Angola, while those from SE Europe (Bulgaria) migrate via the Middle East and E African Rift Valley to their wintering sites in southern Africa (S Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe) (Hahn et al. 2020). Tracked birds from the Portugal migrate S to winter in three W African regions:  Senegal/Guinea-Bissau, Mali/Ivory Coast and Benin/Nigeria (Costa et al. 2021).

Connectivité par mois par région pour Guêpier d’Europe

Dispersal movements after the breeding season are evident as early as mid-summer. Within Europe, autumn migration takes place mostly in late summer and early autumn, the encounters progressively decrease afterwards. Birds stay in their wintering grounds in Africa mainly between mid-autumn and mid- to late spring. European breeding grounds are occupied in mid- to late spring, depending on latitude.

An encounter of a bird in Ukraine marked in Italy suggests that at least some birds from the eastern populations use routes across the C Mediterranean Sea as well. 

It was recently found that birds can migrate 14,000 km in the same group and groups that separate during migration can re-join after 5,000 km apart (Dhanjal-Adams et al. 2018).