Bird migration Dear Readers, The world of birds is full of fas- begin their migration to Africa into English and published it elec- cinating stories. Perhaps one of in August to spend the winter tronically. The PDF file is to be the most impressive is the annual in central Africa. In April they distributed free of charge, and we migration of many bird species return to Germany, display their encourage you to forward the file from Europe to Africa and back. A spectacular flight in our summer to anyone you think might share Wood Warbler, for skies, again migrate our enthusiasm for bird migration example, weighing to Africa and back and might be interested in this only ten grams, and for the first time publication. (the same weight build a nest and raise as ten paperclips) young. Two years We, along with the expert board flies from Britain from fledging to the of DER FALKE, hope that we to Ghana, often first brood, without have brought the phenomenon using exactly the touching the ground of bird migration closer to you same stopover sites once – as far as we with this extra issue. If you view in Burkina Faso, to know! Wood Warblers, Barn Swallows, winter in the same Wheatears, Cuckoos or Swifts group of trees as Common Cranes. Photo: H.-J. Fünfstück. In this special issue with slightly different eyes in the the year before. of DER FALKE, „Bird future and share our enthusiasm Barn Swallows from Europe jour- migration“, we wanted to explore for bird migration, then we have ney all the way to South Africa, bird migration in all its facets and achieved our objective. We hope thousands of kilometres over have pulled together input from you will enjoy this special issue of oceans, mountains and deserts – some of the finest experts on this DER FALKE. and return to exactly the same subject in Germany. To make the nest where they hatched the year content available to a wider audi- before. Swifts, born in Europe, ence, we have had it translated Best wishes This PDF is a translation of DER FALKE special issue “Vogelzug” We thank Nigel Agar, David Conlin, Caroline Donovan, Elke Schmidt and Alethea Wang for the translation of Dr. Norbert Schäffer Prof. Dr. Franz Bairlein texts into English. Chief Editor DER FALKE Director Institute of Avian Research “Vogelwarte Helgoland” Science editors: Bank account: Wiesbadener Volksbank Imprint T. Brandt (tb), Dr. J. Dierschke (jd), BIC: WIBADE5W DER FALKE – Journal für Vogelbeobachter H.-J. Fünfstück (fü), Dr. W. Irsch (wir), IBAN: DE38 5109 0000 0015 1999 11 Dr. K. Richarz (ri), Dr. H. Stickroth (hs) ISSN 0323-357X, Copyright information: Dr. C. Sudfeldt (cs), Anita Schäffer www.falke-journal.de All articles published in this journal are Business adress: Editorial assistant: protected by copyright, which covers the !5,! 6ERLAG 'MB( s )NDUSTRIEPARK Dominique Conrad exclusive rights to reproduce the articles, 7IEBELSHEIM s 'ERMANY Tel.: 0049 6766/903-236; as well as all translation rights. Permis- Tel. 0049 6766/903-141, Fax: 0049 06766/903-341; sions for reproduction have to be con- Fax 0049 6766/903-320 E-Mail: [email protected] firmed in writing. No material published in this journal may be reproduced E-Mail: [email protected] Typesetting/composition AULA-Verlag: photographically, stored on microfilm or Editorial board: Rolf Heisler, Julia Schiwek reproduced in other ways without first Dr. Norbert Schäffer (chief editor; sch), Sales department: obtaining written permission from the E-Mail: [email protected] Britta Knapp publisher. Georg Grothe, Phone: 0049 6766/903-206 E-Mail: [email protected] Fax: 0049 6766/903-320 E-Mail: [email protected] Contents Bird migration Norbert Schäffer, Franz Bairlein: Editorial Franz Bairlein: The fascination of bird migration ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Nele Lefeldt, Susanne Schwarze, Henrik Mouritsen: Migratory bird orientation: 10,000 miles without TomTom®? .................................................................................... 12 Jochen Dierschke: Cartographic presentation of ringing data: German ring recovery atlas .................................................................. 16 Klaus-Michael Exo, Wolfgang Fiedler, Martin Wikelski: On the way to new methods: A lifetime of round the clock monitoring .................................................................. 20 Michael Wink: „Out of Africa“: The evolution of bird migration .......................................................................................................... 26 Susanne Homma: Training and ProRing e. V.: Support for voluntary bird ringing .................................................................................. 31 Olaf Geiter, Franz Bairlein: Colour-ringing – it‘s up to all of us .................................................................................................................................. 32 Wolfgang Fiedler: Ringers, ringing centres, EURING and the future .......................................................................................................... 34 Hans-Günther Bauer: The Red List of migratory bird species ............................................................................................................................. 36 Norbert Schäffer: Migratory bird conservation through international conventions ............................................................................... 40 Heiko Schmaljohann: Stopover ecology: What do migratory birds do when they rest en route? ............................................................... 42 Volker Salewski: Migratory birds in Africa .................................................................................................................................................... 48 Martin Flade, Johannes Schwarz, Sven Trautmann: Long-distance migrants live more dangerously: Population trends of German migratory birds ........................ 54 Ommo Hüppop, Kathrin Hüppop: Migratory birds and climate change: From long- to mid-distance migrant? ......................................................... 58 Ralf Aumüller, Katrin Hill, Reinhold Hill: Offshore wind energy turbines: Possible effects of offshore wind energy turbines on bird migration .............. 62 Peter Südbeck, Gundolf Reichert, Petra Potel: Migratory birds and their conservation in the UNESCO – World Heritage Site Wadden Sea ............................... 66 Johannes Wahl, Christopher König, Stefan Stübing: How can ornitho.de contribute to bird migration research? .......................................................................................... 70 Der Falke 60, 2013 1 Bird migration The fascination of bird migration The annual migration of millions of birds is one of nature’s most fascinating spectacles. How do we find out about the migration routes and winter quarters of these birds; how do the birds know the right time to leave on migration, what their destination is, and how to find their route; and how do they manage to survive the journey of thousands of kilometres and the crossing of deserts and oceans? These, and many other questions, have occupied natural scientists for centuries. arl von Linné (1707-1778), in its neck, provided an indication of 120 million ringed birds), we have his Migrationies Avium pub- where it had spent the winter, as did reasonably good information on the Clished in 1757, still assumed the first ringing of White Storks and migration behaviour of many species that migrant birds hibernated at Woodcocks in the 19th century with (see pp. 16–19). the bottom of water bodies. Even recoveries in Southern Europe; but The great success of scientific ring- Heinrich Gätke, who painstakingly it was only in 1899, when the Dan- ing is due to the numerous voluntary recorded which bird species migrated ish teacher Hans Christian Mortensen helpers who carry it out in their free through Helgoland and when, was had the idea of fitting birds with time. There are some 800 volun- only able to speculate on their origin, small metal rings engraved with an teers in Germany and some 8,600 and where they went to in winter, in individual number and address, that in Europe as a whole. The existence his book The Helgoland Bird Observa- it became possible to shed some light of such a large voluntary effort is tory Ornithological Station published on the migration routes and winter- a unique phenomenon in zoologi- in 1891. The famous female ‘Arrow ing areas of birds. Today, after a good cal research throughout the world. Stork’, which was shot in 1822 near 100 years of bird ringing (within Ger- Most of the ringers now participate Wismar, N Germany, with an arrow many alone more than 20 million, in special programmes, where very of East African origin embedded in and throughout Europe more than specific questions are worked on, and which are coordinated on a national or European level. Information on the recovery of a ringed bird usu- ally reaches the responsible national ringing centre. Here, on the basis of the ring number, the date and place of ringing is established and both the finder and the ringer are informed of the ringing and ring recovery data. Birds like the Pied Flycatcher (below) There is also an intensive exchange of marked with rings with a combination of information between national ringing numbers and letters can be individually centres, as ring recovery information identified. Photos: R. Nagel very frequently comes from abroad. Today there is a ringing