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Range: Eastern Europe to Central Asia, Africa. A rare breeder in the east of the region with small populations surviving in scattered parts of Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, northern Greece, Turkey and the Caucasus. A tiny population may still linger on in Cyprus. Also breeds in Moldova, Ukraine and southern Russia east to Central Asia reaching western Sinkiang. The first breeding for the Czech Republic took place in southern Moravia in 1998 and the first Austrian breeding record for nearly two centuries occurred in 1999.
Birds from the Balkans and Turkey are largely resident but those from further north and east are migratory. Autumn passage takes place in August -October and the return is in late February-April. Small numbers are seen annually at the Bosphorus and at Bor�ka in Turkey in autumn and Eilat in spring. In winter the species is more widespread and found in Greece and Albania, Romania, parts of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Israel and in Africa from Egypt south to Tanzania.
Vagrants have been recorded north to Sweden, Finland and Denmark, the Baltic States, Poland (has bred) and Austria (has bred), Germany, Italy and France. In the east a vagrant to Japan.
<p>Habitat: Mainly open lowland areas with scattered trees or adjacent to patches of woodland, sometimes marshes.
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