Rare bird migrates by plane after injury
02.11.11
A rare bird of prey that recovered from a wing fracture has been helped to migrate this year, by plane. The young honey buzzard was recovering at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover, Hampshire, and missed the window to migrate to Africa for the winter. To catch up with his fellow birds he was put on a flight from Birmingham Airport to the Gambia.
A spokesman for the bird sanctuary said there were only 60 to 70 pairs of honey buzzards in the UK. They migrate to Europe to breed in the summer and spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa to feed on a diet of larvae, honey and bugs.
The injured buzzard would have hatched this year and should have set off to fly south in August, not returning to breed in the UK for two years. The spokesman added: ‘These birds have a very specialised diet and it was inconceivable to keep him in captivity all that time, so we decided to give him some help using modern aviation methods.’
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