Species fact sheet by Global Register of Migratory Species - www.groms.de

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Migratory. Migrates in broad front across Europe, staging at few, often traditional, sites. Many birds probably migrate non-stop, especially to autumn. On autumn migration females usually precede juveniles and males by 2- 4 weeks, and also tend to return first to breeding grounds. Birds depart from Scottish Highlands first half Aug, Siberia from late Aug to early Sept; passage W Europe mid-Aug to late Sept; some birds stage in Alps at altitude 2000-3000 m or on crest of Jura Mts at 1600m; many stage to moult in N Caspian region, migrating further S until Nov; birds arrive in winter grounds from early Sept. Spring migration begins late Feb to Mar, passing W Europe mid-Apr to mid-May and Ukraine mid-Mar to late Apr, returns to breeding ground in Scotland early May, S Scandinavia middle to late May, and Lapland and N Russia late May to mid-Jun. Despite vast and discontinuous breeding range no indication of subspeciation; this is in accordance both with limited faithfulness to breeding sites, which may be due to mixing in winter quarters, and with erratic breeding in Europe. During migration sometimes in flocks of 20-80 birds, but usually 3-6.   (del Hoyo J, Elliott A, Sargatal J (eds), 1996)

• digitised by GROMS, after del Hoyo J A Elliott; J Sargatal (eds) (1996) - www.hbw.com,
• Copyright: GROMS/BfN - www.groms.de
  
  (A digitised version of this map is published in GIS shape format on the GROMS CD).