Rarest bird in Middle East found in Ethiopia

(13/10/2006)

British and Middle Eastern bird experts are delighted after identifying the winter home of the northern bald Ibis, the rarest bird in the Middle East. Three tagged birds, nicknamed Sultan, Salam and Zenobia, have been followed by satellite from their summer grounds in Syria to Ethiopia, (a journey of 3,100km) in a discovery which has been described as a “major breakthrough” by Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). 

The internationally-recognised Red List of Threatened Species categorises the bird (Geronticus eremita) as critically endangered because of habitat loss, farming, human encroachment and pollution. There are thought to be only two surviving summer populations, one in Syria and one in Morocco. Its range used to extend into Europe.

The location surprised researchers who had been looking for them further north.

“As we searched, we were not getting any signals from the transmitters, so finding the birds in such a remote area was a wonderful surprise," said Mengistu Wondafrash from the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society.

"We will be doing all we can to implement conservation measures to help increase the numbers of this rare but special bird."

“Knowing where these birds go... has answered a big question mark that remained for this species, and one that we feared we might never resolve,” said Chris Bowden, a bald ibis specialist with RSPB.

ENDS