¡¡¡¡Gu, D., Chai, Y., Gu, Y., Hou, J., Cao, L. and Fox, A.D., 2019. Annual
migration routes, stopover patterns and diurnal activity of Eurasian
Bitterns Botaurus stellaris wintering in China. Bird Study, 66(1),
pp.43-52. (´óÂéøZ£¬27g,16g)
¡¡¡¡Eurasian Bitterns Botaurus stellaris caught in winter in eastern
China summered in the Russian Far East. To identify migration timing,
duration and routes, as well as stopover sites, used by Eurasian
Bitterns in the Russian Far East flyway and obtain basic information on
behaviour and ecology from tracking data. We tracked two Eurasian
Bitterns caught in China with global positioning system/mobile
communications loggers for one and three years respectively, to identify
their migration routes and schedules. We used the distance moved
between successive fixes to determine their diurnal activity patterns.
The two individuals wintered in eastern China and travelled a mean of
4221?¡À?603?km (in 2015¨C17) and 3844?km (2017) to summer in the Russian
Far East. Results from one bird have shown that in all three years, the
bird was significantly more active during the day than at night,
although the absolute differences varied with season, being most
nocturnally active in summer. The most surprising result from this bird
was the flexibility in spring migration and the lack of summer site
fidelity. The study identified previously unknown migration routes of
the Eurasian Bittern in East Asia, and suggested that the species is
generally more active during the day throughout the year.