Abstract
The conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy decision-makers. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African-Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a non-breeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyse trends in knowledge over time, as well as spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries) and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). We found the taxonomic coverage of existing tracking data to be highly incomplete, with, to date, an average of just 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species tracked per country. Furthermore, existing data are biased towards more westerly countries and larger bodied species. Despite these limitations, existing data can already inform conservation efforts, and we provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified (involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries). Finally, we highlight countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) that are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Our data and analyses can inform discussions under two key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African-Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan, and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia.