Passerines’s records

Passerines’s records

The end of the spring-summer 2024 field season is approaching and, with the exception of a few swifts, all the GLS* of the MIGRATLANE programme have been deployed on passerines, i.e. 345 birds of 14 different species equipped in the UK and France! If you see a passerine bird with a red ring on the Atlantic coast, it’s definitely a bird from the programme. Some are wearing a GLS, while others have only been ringed and will serve as “control birds” for the study.

*To find out what a GLS is, go to the technical page.
** The photo above shows a meadow pipit fitted with a GLS in June 2024 in Finistère (Photo: Y. Coulomb).

Bluethroat carrying a 0.5g GLS, in Ile deRé. Only the small light amplificator of the GLS is visible on its back, barely poping out of back feathers. Photo : François Vignaud.
Northern wheatear fitted with a GLS and red + metal ring, in Ouessant island (Bretagne). Photo : Cédric Caïn (PNRA)
Back and forth migration of a Northern weathear from breeding in Ouessant island. It probably crossed the Bay of Biscay directly from Finistère to Galicia, then the Mediterranean and the Sahara, climbing to an altitude of over 4,000 m and wintering in Senegal before returning on its trail. Note the many migratory stops symbolised by the red circles, whose size is proportional to the time spent there.

Back and forth migration of a Northern weathear from breeding in Ouessant island. It probably crossed the Bay of Biscay directly from Finistère to Galicia, then the Mediterranean and the Sahara, climbing to an altitude of over 4,000 m and wintering in Senegal before returning on its trail. Note the many migratory stops symbolised by the red circles, whose size is proportional to the time spent there.

A female Northern wheatear takes flight with a GLS on the island of Quéménès, in the Iroise Marine Nature Park. Will it also winter in Senegal? Photo: P. de Grissac

A female Northern wheatear takes flight with a GLS on the island of Quéménès, in the Iroise Marine Nature Park. Will it also winter in Senegal? Photo: P. de Grissac

This spring wagtail, equipped with a GLS near Redon (southern Ille-et-Vilaine), seems to have crossed from southern Spain to Namibia in one go!

This spring wagtail, equipped with a GLS near Redon (southern Ille-et-Vilaine), seems to have crossed from southern Spain to Namibia in one go!

Yellow wagtail fitted with a GLS in 2023 and back from migration with its GLS in 2024, in Estuaire de la Vilaine (Morbihan). Photo : Fanny Rey.

Merci à Paul Dufour qui a analysé ces premières données et aux photographes et ornithologues qui partagent leurs observation d’oiseaux MIGRATLANE bagués !