Data from: Eco-evolutionary drivers of avian migratory connectivity

Migratory connectivity, reflecting the extent by which migrants tend to
maintain their reciprocal positions in seasonal ranges, can assist in the
conservation and management of mobile species, yet relevant drivers remain
unclear. Taking advantage of an exceptionally large (~150,000 individuals,
83 species) and more-than-a-century-long dataset of bird ringing
encounters, we investigated eco-evolutionary drivers of migratory
connectivity in both short- and long-distance Afro-Palearctic migratory
bird taxa. Connectivity was strongly associated with geographical proxies
of migration costs and was weakly influenced by biological traits and
phylogeny, suggesting the evolutionary lability of migratory behaviour.
The large intraspecific variability in avian migration strategies, through
which most species geographically split into distinct migratory
populations, explained why most of them were significantly connected. By
unravelling key determinants of migratory connectivity, our study improves
knowledge about the resilience of avian migrants to ecological
perturbations, providing a critical tool to inform transboundary
conservation and management strategies at the population level.