Page 2 - ring_2005

216 THE RING 27, 2 (2005)

flight over land, thousands of birds undertake a long sea crossing through the cen-
tral Mediterranean en route to east-central Europe (Cramp and Simmons 1980). In
this paper we review and discuss results of recent studies concerning spatial migra-
tion patterns and the water crossing tendency of adult Honey Buzzards in the cen-
tral Mediterranean area during spring and autumn migration.
During spring adult Honey Buzzards concentrate crossing the sea at the narrow-
est point (about 150 km wide), between the Cap Bon Peninsula (Tunisia) and west-
ern Sicily, at least part of them via Pantelleria and Marettimo islands (Fig. 1,
Agostini et al. 1994, Agostini and Logozzo 1998, Gustin et al. 2005), peaking during
the first half of May. After they reach western Sicily, most of them fly east along the
mountain chain of northern Sicily reaching the Strait of Messina, between southern
continental Italy and Sicily (Fig. 1). However, some of the migrants bypass the
Strait of Messina and use alternative flyways reaching the Italian Peninsula under-
taking a further long powered flight across the Tyrrhenian Sea via Ustica and the Li-

Tyrrhenian
Sea
Lipari
Ustica
Marettimo
SICILY
Pantelleria
Cap Bon
MALTA

TUNISIA

LIBYA

Fig. 1. Approximate migratory flyways used by adult Honey Buzzards during spring and autumn
migration across the central Mediterranean