Migration routes and breeding sites of Rooks wintering in the Hachiro-gata polder, northern Japan

Abstract

The wintering distribution of Rooks Corvus frugilegus has expanded considerably in Japan since the early 1990s, but their migration routes and breeding sites have not been described. We satellite-tracked the migration of 20 Rooks from the wintering area of the Hachiro-gata polder, northern Honshu, Japan northwestwards in spring. The Rooks departed Oshima, Tsugaru, and the Shakotan Peninsula in northern Japan, and arrived in the Sanjiang Plain in northeastern China, and the area east of Blagoveshchensk in southern Russia, which are suspected of being their breeding areas.