Plane ride helps injured bird migrate
02.11.11
A rare bird of prey that suffered a wing fracture has been helped to migrate this year - by plane. The honey buzzard was recovering from its broken wing at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover, and missed its window to migrate to Africa for the winter. To catch up with his fellow buzzards, he was put on a flight from Birmingham Airport to the Gambia.
A spokesman for the bird sanctuary said there are 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 where they feed on a diet of larvae, honey and bugs.
The injured buzzard hatched this year and should have set off south in August, not returning to breed in the UK for two years. The spokesman said: ‘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.’
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