Timing of migration, routes and wintering grounds of a short-distance diurnal migrant revealed by geolocation: a case study of Linnets Carduelis cannabina

Abstract

We used light-level geolocation to study the migration and wintering grounds of a short-distance diurnal migrant, the Linnet Carduelis cannabina, which breeds on the German island of Helgoland. Of 61 light-level geolocators deployed during the 2013 and 2014 breeding seasons, five tags were recovered in subsequent years of which one tag contained data of two consecutive years. Analysis of the geolocator data revealed that of these five Linnets four—all male—overwintered in southern France and the North of Spain and one—the only female of the group—spent most of her non-breeding period in northwestern Morocco, more than 2500 km away from her breeding area on Helgoland.