Common Buzzards wintering strategies as an effect of weather conditions and geographic barriers

Aim Migration is a constantly changing adaptation due to the climate condition evolution. The struggle for surviving during harsh winter season is different across Europe, being more complex toward the inner parts of the continent. The current approach explores the Common Buzzard number variation during the cold season and the climatic predictors of birds of prey wintering movements in relation to the possible influences of the Carpathian Mountains, which may act as a geographical barrier providing shelter from cold air outbreak from north and northeast of the continent. Location Romania (45°N25°E). Taxon Birds of Prey. Methods We applied a GLMM to investigate the relation between continental and local climatic factors with the number of Common Buzzard observations in two regions. The first region is located inside the Carpathian Arch and the other one outside, east of this large mountains chain. Results The Common Buzzard numbers wintering Eastern from the Carpathian Mountains are highly influenced by AO (Z = 2.87, p
The analysis of meteoclimatic conditions reveals different spatial origins of Common Buzzard observed in Romania. While the high number of individuals in Moldova is related to their eastern and northeastern Europe origins, in Transylvania the higher number of individuals observed is related to the more sheltered characteristics of the region attracting individuals from central‐eastern Europe. Also, the Transylvania region being well sheltered during cold air outbreak represents a more favorable region for wintering. From this point of view, we can consider that the Carpathian Mountains are a geographic barrier for wintering birds of prey.