The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has presented the first atlas of bird migration across three continents. It visualizes how migratory animals connect continents, countries, sites, and habitats. The scientific compendium is the first part of a broader initiative to develop a global atlas of animal migration.
The interactive atlas maps and analyzes data on the movements in time and space of millions of birds across the Eurasian-African flyway. Researchers from 10 different institutions and over 50 different organizations contributed to the Atlas. CMS developed the atlas together with its partners the European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING) and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
A major accomplishment of the Eurasian-African Bird Migration Atlas is to have collated, analyzed, and synthesized bird ringing data collected over more than 100 years on 300 species.
In addition, for over 100 of these species, the online mapping tool overlays movement patterns identified through bird ringing with tracks obtained through satellite transmitters, GPS-GSM tags or geo-locators. Together, they provide the most complete information available on the migration routes of these species.
