title: Drought in Africa caused delayed arrival of European songbirds.
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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. aptottrup@bio.ku.dk
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Tøttrup
authors.forename: R H G
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Klaassen
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Strandberg
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vardanis
authors.forename: Å
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Lindström
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rahbek
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alerstam
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorup
mesh_terms: D000352:Africa, Northern; D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D057231:Climate Change; D055864:Droughts; D005060:Europe; D012621:Seasons; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*