Integrating light-level geolocation with activity tracking reveals unexpected nocturnal migration patterns of the tawny pipit

Migratory birds complete their seasonal journeys between breeding and non-breeding sites with a series of migratory flights that are separated by prolonged stopovers. While songbirds are the most common taxa among migratory birds, empirical data on flight and stopover behaviour along their entire migratory journeys are still rare. Here, we integrate activity and barometric pressure tracking with classical light-level geolocation to describe migration behaviour of tawny pipits Anthus campestris breeding in Central Europe. Surprisingly, tracked pipits used, on average, as many as 10 stopover sites during their six week, >5000 km long autumn migration. This conforms to a typical hop-type pattern of migration. In contrast to common knowledge which considers the tawny pipit as a typical diurnal migrant, our data revealed that more than 2/3 of all migratory movements were carried out at night. Nocturnal departure times were highly variable within individuals and spread across the entire ni...