Next to the Atlantic Ocean and at the western tip of Europe, Portugal sits at the centre of a favouredight path for many species of migratory birds - theEast Atlantic Flyway, which links the birds’ breeding grounds in northern Europe with their wintering areas in the Mediterranean basin or on the African continent. At the same time, its location at one of the geographic extremes of the Mediterranean Sea, where is it easiest to cross this broad body of water, means that it is possible to observe on Portuguese soil thousands of birds that seasonally use another important migratory corridor - the Mediterranean and Black Sea Flyway. This is an important route for gliding birds that depend on the thermal currents that form over the land, such as birds of prey or storks.
In addition to this, the climate of the Iberian andMacaronesian regions (such as the archipelagos ofthe Azores and Madeira), during the autumn and winter, is much milder and/or more humid than the other potential wintering locations, providing ideal conditions for shelter and a greater availability offood (such as late berries and fruits such as olives)for many species that winter here, in particular small- and medium-sized birds such as passerines. In this issue, we celebrate the diversity of migratory passerine birds, living links between European territories and countries as distant as Iceland,Norway, Russia and Portugal. In each iconographicgroup, we have selected a species that shows migratory populations in a European context, and another with populations that are markedly resident, or even endemic, in certain Portuguese regions, with both species occurring in the landscapes depicted.
MADEIRA
In the highlands of the eastern side of the interior of the island of Madeira, among deep ravines gouged in the volcanic rock and the luxuriant laurel forest, emerge diverse areas of more open landscape, which are the favoured habitat of two speciesof nches: the gold nch (Carduelis carduelis), which registers large migratory populations in theEuropean context; and the Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), a species endemic to Macaronesia (the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cape Verde).
