KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY

Raptors and storks are prize species to spot as thousands of birds take to the skies above the Strait of Gibraltar

- Mike Dilger's WILDLIFE SPECTACLES

NO SELF-PROFESSED BIRD-LOVER should ever tire of ‘vismigging’, or watching avian migrations in action. This biannual event occurs when huge numbers of migratory birds follow established flyways to their breeding areas in spring, before returning along the same routes later in the year to overwinter. Catching this fabulous phenomenon can be absolutely thrilling – especially when the travellers in question are large species such as storks and birds of prey.

Did you know?

The Egyptian vulture, with its easily identifiable bright yellow face and white plumage, is Europe's only long-distance migratory vulture, and is also its smallest. Sadly, it is on the IUCN Endangered list.

There are three main flyways, or superhighways in the sky, around the globe. Birds move between North and South America along the Americas flyway; the East Asia and Australasia flyway stretches from Alaska to Russia’s Taimyr Peninsula in the north, and to Australia and New Zealand in the south; while the African-Eurasian flyway is the route of choice between Africa and Europe or West Asia.