Satelliten-Telemetrie eines Zugvogels von Mitteleuropa bis in das südafrikanische Winterquartier: eine Fallstudie am Weißstorch (Ciconia ciconia)

Abstract

An adult male, equipped with a Microwave transmitter PTT 100, could be located during the whole away migration (onset 23 August 1993, termination 16 January 1994) from its nesting site near Berlin in Germany until S. Africa (over 11 994 km) and during the initial part of the return migration (until the death of the battery 27 February 1994 in Zambia). The total coverage of the bird was 13 404 km within 226 days. The stork migrated rapidly to W. Sudan where it stayed for more than two months (from 20 September to 27 November). Only during a second migratory phase (27 November to 16 January) it reached the southernmost part of its wintering area in S. Africa (about 200 km W of Pretoria) where it only stayed until 19 February. Thus wintering of the White Stork in Africa can be a fairly dynamic process rather than a static event as in many other bird species. The stork returned to its nesting site on 27 April 1994 so that its total round trip came to 249 days. It is likely that the total coverage of away and return migration by satellite-tracking in large long-distance migrants like White Storks will soon become possible when further developed transmitters are available.