Out of Africa: Juvenile Dispersal of Black-Shouldered Kites in the Emerging European Population.

Knowledge of animal dispersal patterns is of great importance for the conservation and maintenance of natural populations. We here analyze juvenile dispersal of the poorly studied Black-shouldered Kite ) monitored in southwestern Spain in an ongoing long-term study initiated in 2003. The European population of Black-shouldered kites is thought to be a recent one funded by colonizing African birds, as no kites have been found in the European fossil record, and the breeding population has progressively expanded to the North in the late 20th and 21st centuries.