Relative roles of static and dynamic abiotic conditions as drivers of foraging behaviour in breeding Sandwich Terns

New research involving BTO used GPS tagging to examine Sandwich Tern foraging behaviour during the breeding season. Like other seabirds, Sandwich Terns are so-called ‘central place foragers’ while they are incubating eggs and feeding chicks, shuttling to and from their nest site in search of food. However, successfully finding food on each trip away from the nest requires navigating a continually changing marine environment and relocating moving prey.

A 30,000-km journey by Apus apus pekinensis tracks arid lands between northern China and south-western Africa

The Swift is widely distributed with a cross-continental breeding range spanning Europe and large parts of Asia and north Africa. Until recently, Swift migration research has focused on populations which breed in Europe and north-western Africa (the apus subspecies), leaving the migration of birds breeding throughout Asia (the pekinensis subspecies) shrouded in mystery.

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The Breeding Bird Survey 2021

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Definition of Favourable Conservation Status for Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo

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Timing is critical: consequences of asynchronous migration for the performance and destination of a long-distance migrant

There is growing evidence that climate change is shifting the timing of migration for migrant birds, but we have surprisingly little information on what these changes mean for them. The timing and duration of a migratory flight is likely to determine the environmental conditions that an individual will encounter on its journey, and this may have important consequences. It may encounter unfavourable weather conditions or discover that a traditional stopover site doesn’t hold the expected resources, because the bird has arrived too early or too late.