Negotiating an ecological barrier: crossing the Sahara in relation to winds by common swifts.

ABSTRACT: The Sahara Desert is one of the largest land-based barriers on the Earth, crossed twice each year by billions of birds on migration. Here we investigate how common swifts migrating between breeding sites in Sweden and wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa perform the desert crossing with respect to route choice, winds, timing and speed of migration by analysing 72 geolocator tracks recording migration. The swifts cross western Sahara on a broad front in autumn, while in spring they seem to use three alternative routes across the Sahara, a western, a central and an eastern route across the Arabian Peninsula, with most birds using the western route. The swifts show slower migration and travel speeds, and make longer detours with more stops in autumn compared with spring. In spring, the stopo

SUBMITTER: Akesson S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4992717 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature