Across and around a barrier: migration ecology of raptors

taly Differently from the majority of birds, raptors move mostly using soaring-gliding flight rather than pow-ered flapping flight using thermal currents over land. For this reason most of them tend to avoid flying over water surfaces. In this study are analyzed factors influencing raptor migration strategies of four spe-cies: the honey buzzard, the short-toed snake eagle, the western marsh harrier and the black kite. Each species shows a different migration pattern when crossing the Mediterranean sea. The most important fac-tors influencing raptors during migration are: morphology, geography, flocking behaviour, weather condi-tions. All these elements interact with each other in shaping the migration strategies of raptors.