Finishing the breeding season the red-footed falcons gather in small groups and roam around the breeding territories or occasionally they may appear in Northern and Western Europe in large numbers. Between August and October the birds use pre-migration roost sites which may yield thousands of birds at the same time. Although we hardly understand how and where these night-roosts are formed but certain windbreaks, solitary trees or small wood patches are used year after year.
They leave the breeding area in September-October and migrate on a broad front (from the middle east to the whole eastern Mediterranean basin) and arrive to the savannahs of southern Africa in November (see the figure). The birds leave the wintering grounds around February and arrive back to the breeding area in mid-April, early May.
