Dinosaurs

Migratory birds are benefitting from measures taken against the novel coronavirus in Turkey as they continue to migrate from the south to the north, one expert told Anadolu Agency.

A black stork, whose migration route has been followed since 2016 with a satellite transmitter attached to it, entered Turkey from the eastern province of Hatay 10 days ago.

The stork, which reached Romania via Bulgaria, travels form 15,000 kilometers every year between Africa and Europe.

Strong winds this week and low temperatures earlier this week caused the death of thousands of migratory birds including swallows and swifts passing through Greece on their way from Africa to Europe, Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported on Thursday.

"It's a major disaster," Maria Ganoti of the wildlife protection group Anima told the AFP.

As many as 170 species of birds have been observed so far in the Vacaresti Natural Park (PNV), with the lesser black-backed gull being the latest to be spotted there. "We have just reached 170 species of birds observed in the park.

The migration of birds has already begun and is in full swing, said Dr. Peter Yankov, an ecologist at the Poda Nature Conservation Centre of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), in an interview with Focus News Agency.

Three young Egyptian vultures, raised in zoos in Zlin, Schonbrunn and Jerez, were released to the Eastern Rhodopes on Thursday, the press office of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds announced.

Anatolian folk songs have always been about longing, despair and love, likening cranes on migration to people harboring these sentiments. Cranes in the past few years have sought safety in the reeds and skies of Anatolia, with many of them not migrating this year, but preferring to stay in the Ekşisu Reed in the eastern province of Erzincan.

Located on the flyway of migratory birds, Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır has once again welcomed hundreds of hawks.

Pakistan's warm waters have long been a refuge for millions of birds that migrate from Siberia to avoid the stinging winter every year. However, the numbers of migratory birds have fallen drastically in recent years due to massive hunting by hunters both local and foreign. But the poor birds have found a new wetland — safe from the fear of hunting — at least for now.

Turkey was home to 1.72 million water birds of 103 species over the winter, the Mid-Winter Water Bird Count 2018 report has revealed.