Michele Mendi

Distributed in S Europe, the Middle East and Africa (BirdLife International 2021). Avoids the deserts and too dry regions. Scattered breeding in Europe, associated to main wetlands (Keller et al. 2020). European populations winter in tropical Africa (Sahel), with a still small number of birds wintering in the Mediterranean area.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		36600-67000,49300
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Squacco Heron

Limited amount of ring-recovery data for the species in Africa: only 7 recoveries across the sub-Saharan belt, from W Africa to Nigeria. Therefore, caution must be paid to infer any connectivity pattern. The few existing data, however, suggest parallel migration patterns, with populations from W Europe overwintering in regions further to the W in Africa than populations from E Europe. Overall, high connectivity is suggested. An exceptional recovery of a bird ringed in Azerbayan, which was found in N France in Feb.  

Recoveries by Condition for Squacco Heron

Overall, most recoveries due to birds found dead, with more or less similar proportions between those dead by shot and those found sick/wounded. An also remarkable proportion (28%) of recoveries is associated to unknown causes, but most of these might be due to birds found dead. From the decade of 1990 onwards, the proportion of recoveries by shot has decreased up to less than 4%, whilst recoveries of birds found alive have increased to 26%. Note, however, that these stats are based in very small sample sizes.

Annual Movements for Squacco Heron

Autumn migration to Africa patent in Sep, might start earlier at least in some populations. Recoveries in Africa from Oct to Mar. Some birds, still a minority, overwinter in Europe

Connectivity by Month by Region for Squacco Heron

Recoveries in Africa of SE European populations in Aug, Dec and Mar. Recoveries in Europe, mostly across a NE-SW axis connecting breeding to winter quarters, from Mar to Sep; some recoveries also in Dec, hence some birds overwinter in Europe. Recoveries N to ringing site in Aug, which might reveal some N-ward after-breeding dispersal before the autumn migration to Africa. Very similar pattern to SC Europe, though in this case no recoveries in Africa. Many recoveries in spring (mostly in Apr) in SC Europe belong to herons ringed in SE Europe or, more exceptionally, in SW Europe (e.g., a bird ringing in Doñana in Jun recovered in C Italy in Apr).

Juan Arizaga

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
BirdLife International2021 . Species factsheet: Ardeolla ralloides.

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