ORIGINAL ARTICLE Disentangling the drivers of change in Common Teal migration phenology over 50 years: land use vs. climate change effects Matthieu Guillemain • Claire A. Pernollet • Gre ´goire Massez • Franc ¸ois Cavallo • Ge ´raldine Simon • Jocelyn Champagnon Received: 30 September 2014 / Revised: 21 January 2015 / Accepted: 2 February 2015 Ó Dt. Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V. 2015 Abstract A large body of research has accumulated on the impact of climate change on wildlife movements and distributions, especially for migratory birds. We used large ringing datasets for the Common Teal (Anas crecca) from the Camargue, southern France, to compare historic (from 1956–1975) spatiotemporal patterns of teal recovery with those seen in modern (2002–2012) years and assess whe- ther the migration phenology of these ringed birds and their use of the Camargue as winter quarters has changed. Be- cause teal are short-distance migrants (i.e., they breed in northern Europe and winter north of the Sahara), they would be predicted to delay their autumn migration in re- sponse to climate change. Conversely, ring recoveries showed that teal are now arriving much earlier: a stable 80 % of the recoveries were made locally in the Camargue each week between mid-November and late January in the modern dataset, whereas this percentage was only 53 % on average in the older data, and the proportion of recoveries made locally in the Camargue gradually increased through the autumn and winter until late January. This suggests that Camargue habitats have changed markedly and become more attractive to teal compared to other potential win- tering areas, consistent with known changes in local habitat management practices and improvements in the body condition of the birds. Despite the fact that global climate change will likely be one of the main drivers of wildlife distribution over the long term and at large spatial scales, local habitat management should not be overlooked, as it can increase habitat attractivity to migratory birds. Keywords Anas crecca Á Autumn migration phenology Á Camargue Á Climate change Á Land-use change Á Ring recoveries Zusammenfassung Entflechtung der Einflussfaktoren auf die Pha ¨nologie des Zugverhaltens der Krickente u ¨ber 50 Jahre: Landnutzung oder Klimawandel? Es gibt inzwischen eine Vielzahl von Studien zu Einflu ¨ssen des Klimawandels auf Bewegungsmuster und Vorkommen von Wildtieren, insbesondere von Zugvo ¨geln. Wir nutzten hier einen großen Datensatz zur Beringung der Krickente Anas crecca aus der Camargue in Su ¨dfrankreich, um die ra ¨umlich-zeitlichen Verteilungsmuster der Wiederfunde zwischen alten (1956–1975) und jungen (2002–2012) Jahren zu vergleichen und zu u ¨berpru ¨fen, ob sich die Pha ¨nologie des Zuges dieser beringten Vo ¨gel und ihre Nutzung der Camargue als Winterquartier zwischenzeitlich gea ¨ndert hat. Da Krickenten Kurzstreckenzieher sind (sie bru ¨ten in Nordeuropa und u ¨berwintern no ¨rdlich der Sahara), wurde angenommen, dass sich ihr Herbstzug aufgrund des Klimawandels verzo ¨gern wu ¨rde. Gegensa ¨tzlich stellte sich Communicated by N. Chernetsov. M. Guillemain (&) Á C. A. Pernollet Á F. Cavallo Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, CNERA Avifaune Migratrice, La Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, 13200 Arles, France e-mail: matthieu.guillemain@oncfs.gouv.fr C. A. Pernollet Á G. Simon Á J. Champagnon Centre de Recherche de la Tour du Valat, 13200 Arles, France G. Massez Les Marais du Vigueirat, Mas Thibert, 13200 Arles, France J. Champagnon Departamento de Ecologı ´a Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecologı ´a, Universidad Nacional Auto ´noma de Me ´xico, A.P. 70-275, 04510 Me ´xico D.F., Mexico 123 J Ornithol DOI 10.1007/s10336-015-1171-z