Tuesday 19 / November / 2024
Muscat: The three endangered Steppe Eagles tagged by the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) and its partners have migrated from Arabia again.
The tagged birds, which had wintered in Saudi Arabia, have been traced to parts of Iran, Iraq and Uzbekistan, besides spending time in other central Asian countries.
They began migrating again as summer began, in keeping with their last year’s migration pattern.
One of the tagged birds has been located in Iran, close to the Iraq border.
“Currently, it is in southern Iraq on the border with Iran. It is quite close to the Iranian town of Abadan. On February 17, one of the Steppe Eagles we have been tracking for just over a year left its wintering area in southwest Saudi Arabia and started migration. Since leaving its wintering area, it has travelled some 1,600km,” a blog maintained by one of ESO’s partners read. The entry was dated March 5.
“Another Steppe Eagle finally made a move. On March 27, it left the area of central Saudi Arabia, where it had spent the winter,” another
blog entry read.
A tagged Steppe Eagle was last tracked to Muynak, a town in western Uzbekistan.
“Another Steppe Eagle spent the early part of the month on the border between Iran and Iraq (see previous blog post). On March 8, it started to migrate. During March 20-22, it continued northward into Uzbekistan, and we received our last location south of the Aral Sea near Muynak,” the blog entry said.
The bird in question had spent time in Iraq and Turkmenistan on its way, the blog entry added.
Repeat of last year
Last year, the birds travelled to and settled in southeast and central Saudi Arabia in the winter. They had gotten back after spending their summer in Central Asia and visited countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan last year.
It was the first time the species had been tagged in the Sultanate and had their migration pattern monitored.
