Recoveries by Condition for White Wagtail

Temporal trends from 75% of dead recoveries before 1960 to >80% of ringing recoveries after 1990, certainly impacting the obtained picture. Overall, live ringing casualties predominate.

Annual Movements for White Wagtail

Overall, the main migration periods are October and March, with no obvious differences betweeadult and first-year individuals. Some indications that females move further south than males in some populations (ssp. yarrellii), as winter sex-ratio male-biased on breeding grounds (Mackay and Sellers 1989). Northern birds start to move earlier, in September, and are back later in April. Breeders from mid latitudes move mainly in October, when northern birds should be at similar latitudes too. Southern birds are only dispersive across their breeding regions. The non-breeding dispersal of southern populations is not well understood from ringing recoveries which document long-distance movements while a majority seem to have only a short-distance dispersal.

Connectivity by Month by Region for White Wagtail

Birds breeding in North Europe move to the Middle East and North Africa mainly in September, reaching the wintering grounds by early October, coming back mostly mid-April. Breeders from Central and East Europe move later, from the last decade of September and in October, reaching the wintering grounds mostly in November, and back end of March/early April. Breeders from the West region move in October and are back from the end of March. Those yarrellii leaving the British Isles move at the end of September, and are back in April (Dougall 1996).

Recoveries by Condition for Northern Raven

There is a very obvious shift in recovery condition from birds found dead before 1961 (90%) to mainly metal and colour rings read in the field after 1990 (90%), with most recoveries in the late 1990s onwards.

Annual Movements for Northern Raven

No general movements detected from recoveries, although there are some winter movements of far N populations to the S. GPS tracking in Germany and France revealed huge distances moved regularly by immatures which flock at the main foraging sites - the composition of the foraging flocks continually changes as individuals constantly arrive and depart (Loretto et al. 2017, Marchand et al. 2018, Jiguet 2020).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Northern Raven

Dispersal by immatures is not structured among seasons. Some N Ravens escape severe winter conditions by moving S in Dec-Jan. There are differentcategories of recovery: birds ringed in late spring (Mar-Apr) and recovered at the same time of year; those generally moving short distances, which are likely natal and/or breeding dispersal and birds moving between the summer and the winter months.

Recoveries by Condition for Tufted Duck

Despite being a game bird, over the whole time period a little over half of the recoveries (~55%) were reported alive. However, this varies over time with mostly dead recoveries (75%) before 1961, decreasing to 19% after 1990. This is largely linked to the development of ringing and colour-marking in Aythya ducks.

Annual Movements for Tufted Duck

While Tufted Ducks are still present in Russia and N Europe until early Nov, most recoveries of these birds in C and (especially) W Europe are from Nov onwards. There are some within-winter movements, sometimes over long distances, but they are far less frequent. There are numerous movements within the winter between sites, and the probability of moving more than 200 km within the winter has been estimated from ringing data at 90% (Korner-Nievergelt et al. 2009). Movements back to the NE start mainly in Mar, but are more pronounced in Apr.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Tufted Duck

Most breeding birds return to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Russia in May. The are  on their wintering grounds (the British Isles to Central Europe) Oct-Mar and are completely absent from the N breeding sites from Nov-Feb. Most ringing is on the wintering grounds and recoveries show that most of these birds move to Fennoscandia and Russia in summer, sometimes far to the E (even to Yakutia at >130°E), so the connectivity pattern is mainly driven by these numerous NE populations. Icelandic birds are present on their breeding grounds May-Aug, moving to the British Isles in winter.

Recoveries by Condition for Little Owl

Currently protected species in Europe. The number of encounters started building up after late 1970s, reaching its peak in 2015. Most encounters are obtained in W & C Europe (58 and 36% respectively). The encounters mainly come from May-Jun – ca. 62% (juveniles are big proportion of the birds ringed).

The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over time (from 76% pre-1960 to 18% after 1991), while those based on alive birds – largely increased (from ca. 20% to 81% respectively); the latter is mostly due to ringing encounters (mainly nestbox ringing). Unlike many other raptors, shooting was not so frequent as recovery condition in the past (from 9% of all cases pre-1960 to almost none afterwards). Traffic is among the currently important negative factors (5% of all cases).

Annual Movements for Little Owl

The dispersal stage is generally defined from Aug to Oct, but major dispersal movements are expected in Sep-Oct (Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008). In Denmark, half of all juveniles under study (sample size 10) had dispersed by mid-Sep, and the remaining – by mid-Oct (Pedersen et al. 2013).

Most ringing data heavily concentrated in C & W Europe. Data from S Europe, which holds the species strongholds, are extremely scarce – very few from Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas and almost none from SE & E Europe; any long-distance movements are apparently lacking.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Little Owl

The species is highly philopatric and its movements are more or less restricted to the dispersal of juveniles. Post-breeding dispersal movements in juveniles take place from late summer to mid-autumn.

Similarly to other owl species, females disperse nearly twice as far as males. Juveniles disperse in random directions, most of them settle within 20 km of their natal area; some disperse over 50 km, and just 4–9% of all young disperse over 100 km (Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008). Among the longest distances revealed by ringing encounters is a bird marked in Germany and recovered in S France (758 km) (Bairlein et al. 2014).

Recoveries by Condition for Common Crane

The very few pre-1960 recoveries are of dead birds, but modern records concern 99% of live recoveries of colour-ringed individuals. Also, 99% of recoveries have been obtained since the 1990s. So the information reported from ringing recoveries concern live birds from the latest three decades.

Annual Movements for Common Crane

The autumn migration over passage dates at passes in the Western Pyrenean passes advanced by three weeks during recent three decades (Filippi-Codaccioni et al. 2011), while the wintering in eastern and south-western France also increased dramatically, illustrating a recent change in the migration strategy of the species. As cranes migrate in familial groups, there is no sex- or age-specific patterns.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Crane

Birds from Central, East and North Europe start to move southward in late September, and mainly during October, arriving in Iberian wintering grounds before the end of the month, though many recoveries are from stopover sites along the flyway, while some birds do winter in Central Europe. The northward migration starts at the end of February, with movements noted up to northern Spain, with recoveries in eastern France mainly in March and until early April.

Recoveries by Condition for Great Black-backed Gull

Overall, most (78%) recoveries due to birds found alive, identified by other means, such as Darvic leg ring(s). Before 1960, most recoveries were due to shot (almost 45%) or birds found dead, sick or wounded (45%). Still up to 1990 most birds were found dead, sick or wounded (60%) or dead by shot (24%). Currently, most (88%) recoveries are due to birds encountered alive, mostly identified from leg ring(s).

Annual Movements for Great Black-backed Gull

Post-breeding movements/migration start as early as Jul, especially in case of High Arctic populations (Olsen & Larsson 2004). Main arrival to these N birds to winter quarters in Sep. Migration in N Europe peaks Oct-Nov, though first movements found already in Jul-Aug. Spring migration Mar-Apr. Younger birds move more than adults, especially if coming from S Scandinavia to NW/W Europe (Olsen & Larsson 2004).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Great Black-backed Gull

Temporal patterns rather similar for all regions, so for details see Annual movements.

Recoveries by Condition for Great Spotted Woodpecker

Most encounters are obtained since the early 2000s. They are generally distributed evenly throughout the year. The bulk of encounters are recorded in NW, C, N & W Europe – ca. 94% combined (39, 23, 18 and 14% respectively).

The encounters based on dead birds largely decreased over the years (from 72% pre-1960 to just 2% after 1991), while those based on alive birds – markedly increased (from ca. 25% to 97% respectively); the latter is mostly due to ringing encounters. Shooting was significant factor in the past, with 12% of all cases before 1960. A variety of recovery condition categories related to human activities (though, currently constituting a small share) has been achieved as a result of the numerous urban populations close-existing to humans.

Annual Movements for Great Spotted Woodpecker

In N populations, post-breeding dispersal is evident Aug-Oct and return movements in spring – Mar-Apr (mid-May) (Noskov et al. 2016). Finnish data suggest even wider margins for the autumn dispersal – from late Jul to early Nov (Saurola et al. 2013).

Dominant movement pattern in the birds breeding in N Europe follows NE – SW direction, leading to subsequent encounters as far as SC & SW Europe Oct-Nov, but mostly in the Baltic & North Sea regions; some birds take SE routes, reaching E Europe as early as Sep.

Adult birds ringed in Mar in Finland and subsequently encountered in May further E in Russia suggest post-invasion return.

Crossing of the Alps sometimes possibly takes place – a dispersing juvenile marked in Switzerland has been encountered in S Italy.

Altitudinal migration has been locally recorded as well (Keller et al. 2020).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Great Spotted Woodpecker

Species’ irregular irruptions are often explained by increased population density or lack of food (cone crops) (Lindén et al. 2011); however, the latter factor is sometimes questioned (Sokolov et al. 2013). The sample size of distant recoveries (>=50 km) show mostly short- to medium-distance movements, rarely long-distance movements – data mainly from N & E Europe. More than half of them (58%) are less than 250km away from the ringing site, and 76% – within 500km.

Post-breeding dispersal movements in N European populations start in late summer and last until mid- to late autumn. The birds are encountered mostly SW (as far as SW France and Italy), but also SE from the ringing sites (Belarus, European Russia). Spring movements take place early- to mid/late spring.

Ringing data from France and SE Europe extremely limited.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Moorhen

As for closely related rails, there is a large switch from mostly dead recoveries (70%) before 1990 to 95% of live recoveries after 1990, corresponding also to a huge increase in recovery numbers in the 2000s.

Annual Movements for Common Moorhen

Populations breeding in southern and western Europe are sedentary or show some short-distance dispersal during the winter. Populations from Poland eastwards are migratory, but are also those with the less ringing information, because of a low ringing effort in East Europe and Russia. Movements occur mainly in April and September for migratory populations and dispersive individuals. There is no available tracking data for that species.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Moorhen

Birds from the North are moving start to move S in September, returns start in March and occur mainly in April. The temporal pattern is similar for migrants from Central Europe, and for short distant movements of birds from the West. The few recoveries in North Africa have been obtained in January and February, for birds of West and North Europe.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Kingfisher

Most encounters are obtained after 2000, primarily during late summer and autumn – ca. 66% in the period Jul-Oct (mainly juveniles). More than half of all encounters are recorded in C & SW Europe – 31 and 23% respectively.

The encounters based on dead birds decreased over time – from 55% pre-1960 to 5% after 1991, while those based on alive birds – markedly increased from 42% pre-1960 to 95% after 1991; the latter is largely due to ringing recoveries. Shooting was significant factor in the past, with 12% of all cases before 1960.

Most distant recoveries (>=50 km) are less than 200km away from the ringing site.

Sample size from SE & E Europe is very limited.

Annual Movements for Common Kingfisher

Post-breeding dispersal is evident as early as Jul, being more pronounced until Oct. About 5% of the birds breeding on the British Isles are thought to migrate (Libois 2011), mostly juveniles are encountered in W Europe from Aug to Oct. Migratory birds from W, N & C Europe are encountered on their European wintering grounds as early as Jul, mostly Sep-Mar, some – until end of Apr. Most breeding sites to the N are left by Oct-Nov. Although Iberian population is largely resident, movement of a bird wintering in Morocco (Dec) has also been recorded.

About 94% of all birds encountered in Aug-Oct for two years in N Spain have been found to be juveniles (Arizaga et al. 2010). Similar results (85-98%) have been obtained for N Egypt in Sep-Oct (Rosińska, Busse 2012).

Return movements in the migratory populations take place Mar-Apr, until May in the N.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Kingfisher

Within Europe, the migratory tendency has been found to increase from S to N and from W to E (Libois 2011), ice-free wetlands during winter being а vital necessity.

Movements after the breeding season take place between late summer and mid-autumn. The wintering sites in Europe are occupied mostly between early autumn and early spring; sometimes spring migration does not start until mid-spring. Migrants from the most N populations leave their territories as late as mid- to late autumn. Migratory birds from C & SE Europe are encountered in N Africa and the Levant from early autumn.

The birds from migratory populations reach their breeding grounds most often early to mid-spring, sometimes as late as late spring in northernmost populations.

Recoveries by Condition for European Shag

Half of the encounters are from birds reported dead without geographical pattern, 6% are shot, nearly all in Norway, UK and France and all before 1990. Almost 10% drowned in fishing nets. One fifth refers to ringing recoveries, nearly all in UK and mainly after 1990. 25% are ring readings, all  after 1990, during which even 40%. Ring readings predominantly at East coast of UK and in Itaky, some Netherlands, France, Norway.

Annual Movements for European Shag

There is hardly any variation visible in the distribution of re-encounters, except that recoveries in northernmost Norway are absent in Nov-Feb, and in Neterlands, Denmark and Sweden recoveries are absent in Jun-Jul.

Connectivity by Month by Region for European Shag

Birds in UK during breeding May-Jul connect to close-by coastal sites in all directions and all months, and to wintering sites on British SE coasts and Netherlands in Oct-Feb, to Brittany, France in Sep-Mar. Wintering birds Nov-Feb all connect to UK breeding colonies in May-Jul. Similar pattern for Norway breeders May-Jul, connecting to close-by sites along coast mainly in May-Sept, to coastal sites further away in Norway and Swedish W coast Sep-Mar. Birds in winter Nov-Feb connect to more northerly colonies along coast Jun-Jul, some to Scotland and Shetland in Jun-Aug. French breeders Jun-Jul connect in all  directions to coastal locations in France in S. UK in all months, one Germany Apr, one Denmark Feb. Nearly all recoveries of breeding birds in Italy Jun-Jul connect to Croatia in Apr.