As every year at the beginning of September, the ICTS-RBD Natural Processes Monitoring Team has begun the scientific ringing campaign of passerines during the post-breeding migration at the Manecorro field station, within the Doñana National Park. These birds travel across the European continent and the Iberian Peninsula in their post-breeding migration. Many of them winter in Doñana, however many others stop in Doñana to recovery energy and continue the migration to the wintering grounds in Africa.

This year, the sampling effort of ringing at the field station will be of 5 days per week (because of a time reduction by the anti-Covid plan). The campaign will finish in the middle of November. Species, sex, age, weight, body fat, pectoral muscle are some of the variables taken when ringing, which will become part of a database that is already close to 90,000 records, from the beginning of the campaign in 1994.

During these months, the number of species and individuals will vary according to their migratory pattern. For instance, the species more common in September have been trans-Saharan migrants such as the Willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), the Iberian chiffchaff (P. ibericus), the Common whitethroat (Sylvia communis), and the European pied flytcatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca). In October, it has been common the pre-Saharan migrants such as the European robin (Erithacus rubecula), the Common chiffchaff (P. collybita), and the Eurasian blackcap (S. atricapilla).

Doñana, located on the European-African migration route, is an area of special interest for the conservation of migratory birds. Long-term monitoring of postnuptial passerine migration can help detect changes in both, their population and migratory pattern.