Investigating the causes and consequences of differential migration may help us understand possible variability in resilience to environmental change within species and populations. Inter-individual variation in temperament has been recognised as a major driver of population ecology, but its relationship to migratory strategy has been ill-explored. Here, we investigated whether male migrant and resident Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis), a long-lived partially migratory seabird, are distinguishable by their temperament at the colony. We tracked over 100 individuals overwinter using GLS devices and assessed whether exploratory behaviour and reaction to extraction from the nest corresponded to migratory strategy over a period of two years. While exploratory behaviour was unrelated to migratory strategy, birds that were more reactive towards extraction from the nest were more likely to migrate. This, together with previous findings that migrants display higher physiological stress over winter, suggests that migrants and residents may be distinguishable by their stress threshold.