Annual Movement Pattern of a Single Individual Steppe Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus Based on GPS Tracking

Common Buzzard Buteo buteo is a raptor widely distributed in the Palaearctic Realm. Populations of a subspecies Buteo buteo vulpinus called Steppe Buzzard are strictly migratory and wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. However, detailed information about its individual movement pattern is missing. We equipped a nestling of Steppe Buzzard with a telemetry logger in eastern Ukraine in the 2021 breeding season. The bird was GPS-tracked till the end of 2022. We characterised its post-fledging period and area, periods and movement patterns of pre-migration vagrancy, two autumn and one spring migrations and winter and summer stays. The first and second autumn migrations (71 and 48 days, respectively) of the tracked bird headed south, along the east coast of the Black and Mediterranean Seas, across the Arabian Peninsula along the east coast of the Red Sea with a flight to Africa via the Bab-al-Mabdab Strait and further southeast to Zambia as wintering place. Back during the spring migration (76 days), the bird returned northeasterly along the west coast of the Red Sea and left Africa after crossing the Suez and returned to its natal area via the east coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Thus, the loop migration of the Steppe Buzzard around the Red Sea was confirmed. During the summer period in 2022, the immature bird changed the area of occurrence from eastern Ukraine to western Russia supposedly as a result of war events in eastern Ukraine.