Coracias garrulus
The advent of sufficiently lightweight tracking technology has facilitated several recent studies of roller migration, providing new information on the non-breeding sites used by rollers from different breeding populations. Individuals from south-west European populations migrate to south-west Africa (Angola, Namibia, Botswana), with French and north-Spanish birds taking a direct southerly route across the Sahara and Portuguese and south-Spanish taking a more westerly route around the west African coast. Rollers from eastern European populations also spend the winter period in southern Africa, but further east in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana. The Sahel savannah region immediately south of the Sahara Desert (particularly the area around Lake Chad) appears to be important for rollers from many populations as an autumn re-fuelling site, and Latvian and other north and north-eastern populations migrate northwards via the Arabian Peninsula in spring . Individuals from different breeding populations use distinct but overlapping winter sites; there is a good correlation between the longitude of individual breeding and non-breeding sites, suggesting parallel migration. In the east, the northernmost breeders (from Latvia) tend to winter south of the southernmost breeders (from Cyprus) - this suggests a pattern of 'leap-frog' migration
Coracias garrulus
The advent of sufficiently lightweight tracking technology has facilitated several recent studies of roller migration, providing new information on the non-breeding sites used by rollers from different breeding populations. Individuals from south-west European populations migrate to south-west Africa (Angola, Namibia, Botswana), with French and north-Spanish birds taking a direct southerly route across the Sahara and Portuguese and south-Spanish taking a more westerly route around the west African coast. Rollers from eastern European populations also spend the winter period in southern Africa, but further east in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana. The Sahel savannah region immediately south of the Sahara Desert (particularly the area around Lake Chad) appears to be important for rollers from many populations as an autumn re-fuelling site, and Latvian and other north and north-eastern populations migrate northwards via the Arabian Peninsula in spring . Individuals from different breeding populations use distinct but overlapping winter sites; there is a good correlation between the longitude of individual breeding and non-breeding sites, suggesting parallel migration. In the east, the northernmost breeders (from Latvia) tend to winter south of the southernmost breeders (from Cyprus) - this suggests a pattern of 'leap-frog' migration