Drought in Africa caused delayed arrival of European songbirds.

Tøttrup, A P; Klaassen, R H G; Kristensen, M W; Strandberg, R; Vardanis, Y; Lindström, Å; Rahbek, C; Alerstam, T et al. · Science · 2012

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Abstract

Despite an overall advancement in breeding area arrival, one of the latest spring arrivals in northwest Europe since 1950 of several trans-Saharan songbird species occurred in 2011. Year-round tracking of red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales revealed that the cause of the delay was a prolongation of stopover time during spring migration at the Horn of Africa, which was affected by extreme drought. Our results help to establish a direct link at the individual level between changes in local climate during migration and arrival and breeding condition in Europe thousands of kilometers further north.

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