Movements & Migration

Most  information on bird movements from ringing come from two sources , firstly , birds
are re-caught elsewhere away from were they were originally ringed  normally by other bird ringers ,
 these are termed controls. Secondly , birds  which are found dead these are termed , recoveries.

Both control and recovery rates of small passerines from ringing is normally very low ( < 1 % ) Several interesting controls from ringing at Banfield Wood are shown below , most fall within known migration patterns and timings , these controls have been added to the national database administered by the British Trust for Ornithology.          

 Blackcaps use a wide variety of migration strategies, populations from different parts of their breeding range varying from resident to migratory.

Northern and east europeon birds are normally wholly migratory, southern birds are partially migratory, with most birds north of the Mediterranean region including the British Isles leaving their breeding areas in winter.

Blackcaps winter within and to the south of their breeding range, south to sub-Saharan Africa, north to Britain and southwest Norway.

Main wintering areas are in sub-Saharan Africa , European populations show a migratory divide, those west of 12°E heading chiefly southwest to southern France and Iberia, those east of 12°E chiefly southeast, funneled from wide area towards Cyprus and Levant; Birds wintering in Britain are apparently all from continental Europe.Autumn migration begins chiefly in August , northern birds tend to leave earlier and migrate faster than southern ones , southern birds on the whole tend to leave after passage migrants have passed through.

Main movement through northern and central Europe including the British Isles is in September, and tends to diminish through October.

At British bird observatories, main passage starts in late August, and most birds have left by the end of September. Spring migration begins early, with prolonged movements late February to May in Egypt and Levant, mid-February to mid-May in the Straits of Gibraltar area. Earliest birds reach Britain late March, although main arrival late April and early May.

Notes on Nightingale migration

British birds are migratory, and tend to winter in the Afrotropics. Western populations including British birds winter between the Sahara and the rain forest in West Africa east to Uganda. British breeding birds leave in autumn between the end of July and September , they tend to move through Europe on a broadly south-west basis, with birds occurring throughout the Mediterranean region though commonest in west.

The are relatively scarce in much of North Africa and also the Middle East in autumn which tends to suggest that the Mediterranean and Sahara are normally crossed in one continuous flight. They are present in their wintering quarters from early November through to early April. Some stay on in the Afrotropics until early May, but spring passage through Nigeria is concentrated in late March and early April with arrivals in North Africa and southern Europe at this time. 

Maps produced by Dmap (See below)

References :

Cramp , S (ed) :   The Birds of the Western Paleartic , Vols 1 - 9      Oxford University Press

Dmap  -  Distribution mapping software  www.dmap.co.uk

---

Top of Page