Cyprus wheatears Oenanthe cypriaca likely reach sub-Saharan African wintering grounds in a single migratory flight

Long-distance migratory flights with multiple stop-overs, multiple wintering sites, and small-scale connectivity in Afro-Palearctic migrants are likely to increase their vulnerability to environmental change and lead to declining populations. Here we present the migration tracks and wintering locations of the first six Cyprus wheatears to be tracked with geolocators: a species with high survival and a stable population. We therefore predicted a non-stop flight from Cyprus to sub-Saharan wintering grounds, a single wintering area for each individual and a wide spread of wintering locations representing low migratory connectivity at the population level. The sub-Saharan wintering grounds in south Sudan, Sudan and Ethiopia were likely reached by a single flight of an average straight-line distance of 2538 km in ca 60 h, with an average minimum speed of 43.1 km h–1. The high speed of migration probably ruled out stop-overs greater than a few hours. Cyprus wheatears migrated from Cyprus in m...