An
exceptional strategy when winter comes
Date: April 26, 2019
Source: University of Barcelona
When
winter comes, populations of red-neck phalarope from the Western Palearctic
migrate to two different destinations -the Pacific Ocean or the Arabian Sea-
following an exceptional migratory divide strategy which has never been
described in this geographical area.
A part of
these bird populations -which breed in Greenland, Island and the British
Islands- cross more than 10,000 kilometres to reach the Pacific Ocean, while
populations in Scandinavia and Russia go to the Arabian Sea in the Indian
Ocean, more than 6,000 kilometres away from their breeding areas.
This
migratory behaviour is now described for the first time in an article published
in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution -in which the researchers Raül Ramos and
Jacob González-Solís, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research
Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio) take part.
An
uncommon wintering species in the peninsula
The
red-neck phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)
is a migratory bird from the family of phalaropes that live in the tundra and
high polar latitudes during their reproduction season. These small shore birds
spend a part of their annual cycle -mainly the wintering period- at open sea,
and therefore they are regarded as pelagic birds. During the migratory routes
after breeding season -from August to September- this species can be
occasionally seen in peninsular areas such as the Ebro Delta or the Atlantic
and the Cantabrian coasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment