Niche partitioning of two Palearctic passerinemigrants with Afrotropical residents in theirWest African winter quarters

In bird migration systems, the question of coexistence and competition of migrants with residents in the nonbreeding season andtheir role in shaping the evolution of present avian communities is much debated. However, conclusions are often drawn ina speculative way. In the Palearctic-African bird migration system, many studies have addressed the question of coexistence ofPalearctic breeding birds with Afrotropical species in the former’s wintering grounds. These studies have led to somegeneralizations concerning habitat selection and foraging ecology about the traits that might enable migrants to coexist withresidents. Migrants were therefore assumed to forage in more open habitats, in more peripheral parts of the vegetation and witha higher foraging speed than residents. Furthermore, they were also assumed to be more flexible in foraging behavior by usinga wider range of foraging tactics, but some studies revealed contradicting results. We studied the ecology of Palearctic migrants inComoe