Lack of Evidence of a Pleistocene Migratory Switch in Current Bird Long‐distance Migrants Between Eurasia and Africa

During the Plio‐Pleistocene, glacial cycles shaped Northern Hemisphere species' distributions causing range contractions followed by interglacial expansions. In migratory bird species, climatic changes could result in a rapid reshaping of their ranges and/or migratory behaviour, given their dispersal capacity. In this context, it has been suggested that long‐distance North American migratory species could have lost their migratory condition during cold glacial periods, regaining it later in warmer periods. Here, we explored this hypothesis for extant Eurasian‐African migratory bird species.