Do passerine migrants captured at an inland site perform temporary reversemigration in autumn?

Ringing recoveries from 18 different passerine species captured at an inlan d ringing site in south Sweden (Kvismare Bird Observatory) were analysed wi th respect to direction and distance of migration in order to investigate t he occurrence of temporary reverse movements opposite to the expected forwa rd migratory direction towards south and south-west in autumn. The data dem onstrate that movements in reverse or other directions were rare compared t o forward movements among the different species and categories of migrants (short-distance or irruptive migrants, temperate and tropical migrants). Co mpared to birds captured on migration at a coastal ringing site in south-we st Sweden (Falsterbo Bird Observatory), the proportion of birds performing reverse movements were significantly lower at the inland ringing site. The results from the inland site and previous results from the coastal site in south-west Sweden suggest that autumn reverse movements mainly occur in mig rating passerines confronted with an ecological barrier, such as a sea. Pre sumably temporary reverse movements in coastal areas is an adaptive behavio ur performed by migrants in order to locate suitable feeding grounds for re fuelling before they are prepared to resume migration and cross the barrier .