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European birds move S to SW in autumn; some winter S Europe and N Africa (Egypt and Morocco), others in W, E & SE Africa; relative paucity of wintering records from Africa attributed to secretiveness and inaccessibility of habitat. Autumn dispersal begins Jul; some birds halt in Aug to moult, and are flightless for 2-3 weeks; marked S movement Aug-Sept; most reach or pass Mediterranean by mid-Nov, passage recorded Egypt and Sudan Sept-Oct, Kenya Nov-Jan. Recorded Sudan and Ethiopia Sept-May; E Africa Nov to early May; C to S Africa Nov-Apr, with peak numbers Jan-Mar. In W Africa occurs Senegal Sept-Feb; isolated Sept-Mar records Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Nigeria (several); probably commoner and more widespread than records indicate. Itinerant in African wintering areas; in Zambia arrives at flooded sites soon after local rain and departs when conditions become too dry, maximum period of residence being 23 days. Passage through N Africa and Mediterranean more marked in spring, suggesting that more birds overfly these regions in autumn; return movements recorded Morocco to Libya and Sudan Mar-May, Kenya Apr-May, and Europe Mar-Apr; European breeding grounds reoccupied Apr. Birds of unknown origin pass through Iraq and Near East; passage Saudi Arabia and Aden Apr and Nov, Oman Sept-Dec; may overwinter regularly. Movements noted former USSR May-Oct and Mar-May, in Azerbaijan Oct-Dec and mar-Apr; sometimes winters in Azerbaijan. Arrives N India Sept-Oct; return movements noted NW Pakistan Mar-Apr. Vagrant to Iceland, Greenland (9 records), Lesser Antilles and Seychelles; regarded as vagrant to Djibouti, Somalia, Socotra, Yemen and C Thailand. One individual found at same wintering site, Transvaal, in 2 successive years.   (del Hoyo J, Elliott A, Sargatal J (eds), 1996)

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