RECORDING OF THE SPRING MIGRATION OF SOARING BIRDS THROUGH GEBEL EL ZEIT, EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Zoology | ||||
| Article 8, Volume 75, Issue 75, June 2021, Page 14-24 PDF (749.16 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Research Papers | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejz.2020.49156.1043 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
Saber Riad   1; Mahmoud El-Mongy2; Ahmed Abdullah2; El-Sayed I. Abdel-Halim2
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| 1Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt | ||||
| 2BEANIT for Heritage and Environment Company, Red Sea, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Egypt is an important pass for the soaring birds’ migration, as it is situated on the mainland connection between the Eurasian and African landmasses that connects breeding grounds in Eurasia with wintering zones in Africa. In the current study, the spring migration of soaring birds was studied along a narrow corridor “bottleneck site” located within the Red Sea/Rift Valley bird migration flyway, Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Over a period of four weeks from April 19th to 17th of May 2019, 89949 soaring birds of 27 species were counted during an eight-hour daily observation window. In total, 47511 raptors of 24 species were recorded. The most common were the group of Levant sparrowhawk “Accipter brevipes”, European honey buzzard “Pernis apivorus”, and Northern steppe buzzard “Buteo buteo vulpinus” forming 33.16%, 32.08%, and 24.91% of all raptors, respectively; while combined black kite “Milvus migrans”, lesser spotted eagle “Aquila pomarine”, steppe eagle “Aquila nipalensis”, short-toed eagle “Circaetus gallicus”, booted eagle “Aquila pennata”, and Egyptian vulture “Neophron percnopterus” recorded more than 6% of the raptor assemblage. In addition, 15 greater spotted eagle “Aquila clanga”, 6 pallid harrier “Circus macrourus”, and 5 Eurasian griffon vulture “Gyps fulvus” were recorded during the observations. Other soaring birds were recorded during the study-time, the most common were: 36700 white stork “Ciconia Ciconia”, 4230 great white pelican “Pelecanus onocrotalus”, and 1500 black stork “Ciconia nigra”. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Greater spotted eagle; Gulf of Suez; Rift valley/Red Sea flyway; Steppe eagle; White stork | ||||
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