Abstract
The globally-threatened Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) breeds in Europe and spends the northern winter in sub-Saharan West Africa. We attached 30 geolocators to breeding birds in the central Ukraine in 2010. Three geolocators which collected data from the autumn migration were recovered in 2011. They revealed a previously-unknown migration route via southern Europe to stopover sites in south-western France and Spain. In West Africa, one bird spent some time well south of known non-breeding areas. For the conservation of some Aquatic Warbler populations, protection of hitherto unknown stopover sites in southern Europe and Africa may be crucial.
Zusammenfassung
Geolokation deckt unbekannten Zugweg des global bedrohten Seggenrohrsängers auf.
Der global bedrohte Seggenrohrsänger (Acrocephalus paludicola) brütet in Europa und überwintert in Westafrika. Wir rüsteten 2010 30 Seggenrohrsänger in einem Brutgebiet in der Zentral-Ukraine mit Geolokatoren aus. Drei Geolokatoren, die Daten vom Herbstzug aufnahmen, wurden 2011 zurückgewonnen. Sie zeigten einen bis dahin unbekannten Zugweg der Seggenrohrsänger durch Südeuropa zu den ersten Hauptrastgebieten in Südfrankreich und Spanien an. In Westafrika hielt sich ein Vogel weit südlich der bekannten Überwinterungsgebiete auf. Für den Schutz der Seggenrohrsänger könnte es daher bedeutend sein, die noch unbekannten Rastgebiete in Südeuropa und Afrika zu berücksichtigen.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to N. Znakovaite-Rodriguez and E. Bächler for the help with the production of the geolocators and with data analyses. A. Berndt, B. Gießing, O. Ilucha and I. Legeyda helped with field work in the Ukraine. G. Kirwan, J. Korb and L. Serra helped with literature search. H. Schmaljohann and an anonymous reviewer improved a previous version of the manuscript. D. Franklin improved our English. For the support of the project we thank the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Ukraine, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the O.M.H. Schmidt-Felsche Foundation.
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Communicated by F. Bairlein.
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Salewski, V., Flade, M., Poluda, A. et al. An unknown migration route of the ‘globally threatened’ Aquatic Warbler revealed by geolocators. J Ornithol 154, 549–552 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0912-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0912-5