Idiosyncratic migrations of Black Terns ( Chlidonias niger ):Diversity in routes and stopovers

By 2013, six of 27 Black Terns ( Chlidonias niger ) from four Dutch colonies that had received light level geolocators in 2010-2011 had been recaptured. All six recovered individuals migrated to West Africa, but whereas one individual flew there nonstop, the others made stops of varying length en route. These included flights of 2,000-6,000 km between major stopovers, achieving travel speeds over 1,000 km/day. In addition to the single previously known postbreeding stopover, Lake Usselmeer, this work revealed postbreeding stopovers at the Alboran Sea, the seas near the Canary Islands and at th... Mehr ...