Sc. Annals of DDI Tulcea, Romania vol. 13 2007 SCIENTIFIC ANNALS OF THE DANUBE DELTA INSTITUTE, TULCEA – ROMANIA, 2007 45 New data regarding the migration of spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) breeding in the Danube Delta, based on color ring resightings KISS János. Botond 1 , SÁNDOR D. Attila 2 , MARINOV E. Mihai 3 , OVERDIJK Otto 4 1 Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (DDNI), 165 Babadag Str., 820112 Tulcea, Romania, e- mail: jbkiss@indd.tim.ro 2 2A Lacului street, Sovata, Mure county, Romania; e-mail: adsandor@gmail.com 3 Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (DDNI), 165 Babadag Str., 820112 Tulcea, Romania, e- mail: mihaimjr@indd.tim.ro 4 International Workinggroup Spoonbills: Knuppeldam 4, 9166 NZ Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands; e-mail: l.m.boogh@home.nl Address of author responsible for correspondence: János Botond KISS - Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (DDNI), 165 Babadag Str., 820112 Tulcea, Romania, e-mail: jbkiss@indd.tim.ro BSTRACT. Based on our previous knowledge the Spoonbills breeding in Europe follow three main migratory routes towards Africa. Populations from the western part of the continent follow the East Atlantic coast of Europe, passing through Gibraltar and winter in Western Africa. The Central European populations fly south to Italy, Sicily, then are crossing the Mediterranean Sea towards Tunis, Libya, Israel and Egypt, sometimes flying over the Sahara desert as far as to Eastern- and Central Africa . Spoonbills from Eastern Europe follow the coast of the Black and Marmora Seas, then the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, where some are spending the winter. Others reach East Africa or even go further east to Iran or India. A color marking study – using engraved PVC rings – was launched in 2002, to follow the migration of Spoonbills breeding in the Danube Delta. From the 219 birds ringed 20 were resighted totalizing 23 observations. These recent resightings suggest a post breeding movement and migratory route with much a broader angle – between Spain in the west and Oman in the east. The birds were observed in 10 countries from Europe, Africa and Asia. The observation of a color ringed individual at Biharugra, Hungary early in migration indicates a true post breeding dispersal towards north-east. Other resightings in Croatia and Italy suggest an orientation towards the main migratory route of the Central European population. The resighting of an individual in Spain indicates population exchanges even with Western European spoonbills, moreover as birds from Romania were observed in Tunisia together with spoonbills from Western and Central European populations. We consider that in the future especially using color ringing or satellite telemetry we may understand much better the migratory pathways of Spoonbills from Romania. Key words: spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, Danube Delta, Romania, migratory route, wintering area. INTRODUCTION The spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia L.) is a species widely distributed in the Paleartic and Africa, with two thirds of its breeding population located in Europe and the Near East [3, 7, 17]. The species has smaller breeding populations in 17 countries, larger populations occurring in Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain and Turkey [5]. After a strong decrease in the XX th century, the populations from Western Europe are presenting signs of recovery, with the species starting to regain former breeding areas [4, 7, 14, 16]. The European populations of the species are migratory, two distinct migratory flyways are known [7, 10]. The East Atlantic flyway stretches along western Europe, using the large river estuaries and deltas (Seine, Somme, Odiel, Rhone, Guadalquir) for stopping-over and reaching Northern Africa at Ceuta. Following the western shores of Africa, they reach the main wintering areas in Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania [8, 24]. This route is widely known, with several studies relating information about population dynamics [2], stop-over ecology [8, 9], habitat use and wintering areas [8, 24, 27]. The second route is the East European migratory route, along the Danube, the Black Sea coast to Turkey, later stopping over on the salinas of the Middle East and Eastern Africa to presumed wintering areas in the upper Nile valley in Sudan and Egypt, Central and East Africa [3, 4, 7]. It was found recently that a part of the Eastern population (breeding birds from Central Europe – Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia) uses another migratory route, reaching Africa via Italy, Sardinia and Malta and winters in Tunisia and Libya [1, 11, 13, 21, 27] and spend the winter in food rich lagoons of coastal North Africa. Part of these birds do cross the Sahara and spend the winter in inland marshes 7. A