This online Migration Atlas covers the huge geographical area represented by two continents, encompassing the flyways between Eurasia and Africa. Movements in time and space of 300 bird species are mapped and analysed drawing on data gathered by European Ringing Schemes over more than a century and collated by the EURING databank.
Another unique feature of this Atlas is that it complements movement data provided by ring recoveries with detailed migration patterns of individual birds provided by tracking studies. Tracking data come via a dynamic data feed from Movebank, a platform hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. Movebank provides tools to help researchers and wildlife managers worldwide to manage, share, analyse and archive data on the movements of individual animals.For over 100 of the species covered by this Atlas, the online mapping tool overlays movement patterns based on ring recoveries, each of which documents only part of the migratory journey, with tracks from electronic devices, principally satellite transmitters, GPS-GSM tags or geolocators, providing the most complete information available on the migration routes of individual birds.
Thus, the Atlas brings together conventional ringing data - offering information from a large array of species, huge numbers of marked individuals, broad geographical scope, information on recovery causes, and long historical coverage - with detailed information on migratory movements from tracking data, from a smaller number of species and individuals and less extensive geographic scope. This complementarity represents a unique feature of the Atlas and a positive example that could be applied to different taxonomic groups.
The online species accounts included in the Atlas have the following elements (see Map Help for more detailed information on interpreting the maps):
- Introductory text, photograph, and basic statistics.
- Overall connectivity map and text (see analysis button) based on 8 ringing regions across Europe. A tracking layer can be displayed where available. Maps showing overall connectivity by age and sex are also provided. These maps show the main connectivity patterns that will often be important for conservation and management.
- Connectivity by condition map and text showing connectivity patterns in relation to seven cause of recovery categories. The associated text explains how the observed recovery patterns are influenced by different recovery causes. This is important information for critical interpretation of the other maps.
- Connectivity by month and by region map showing connectivity for one region at a time, with encounter locations colour coded by month. These maps and the associated text show how different populations are distributed at different times of year.
- Seasonal movements maps and associated text shows bird movements throughout the annual cycle based on ten-day periods.
- The Statistics section displays a range of graphs and tables describing the recovery data present in the Atlas database, including not only the mapped, distant recoveries (distant = at least 50 km between ringing and recovery encounters), but also local recoveries. This information will help users to understand and interpret the data presented.
- Associated references cited in the text which can be viewed using the bibliography button.
The other main feature of this Atlas is the four research modules addressing different aspects of bird migration and relationships between birds and people. All are highly relevant to international and flyway scale bird conservation. These research modules address the following topics:
- Historical changes in migration patterns
- Intentional killing of birds by man
- Migration seasons of hunted species
- Migratory connectivity within the European African migration system
Follow the above links to the individual research modules to read an overview or to download the full reports.
This Atlas has been produced in collaboration with the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), thus a key aim of the work is to inform the conservation of the migratory bird species covered here. In particular, the Atlas provides information to support the implementation and development of important international agreements managed by CMS, including those on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MoU) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan (AEMLAP). CMS needs such information for all of the species groups that it covers, and has an objective to create a Global of Atlas of Animal Migration (GAAM). This Atlas forms the first part of that initiative and we hope that the work presented here will provide an important contribution and tools towards this broader goal. The Executive Summary provides an overview of the key developments and findings produced by the Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas project with particular emphasis on their relevance to the Conservation of Migratory Species.
This report is a CMS publication and is also available from the CMS website.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas Executive Summary (3.01 MB) | 3.01 MB |