Returning to the homeland

Return to July 12, 2022 in the Karatau Mountains our team ringed aт Egyptian Vulture nestling. After the nestling grew up a little bit, on July 30 we assigned an important mission to it: from that day it was to tell us about all its movements with the help of GPS-tracker fixed on it. On the same day he was given a name - Ushkysh. By the way, it is no coincidence that the nestling made its first short flight after seeing the approaching ornithologists.

Ushkish stayed close to the nest for the entire month of August and was just learning to fly. On September 23, 2022, he started his migration, and after almost a month he chose the area of northern Pakistan on the border with India as his wintering ground.

Ushkish spent the entire year of 2023 in Pakistan. At the beginning of May this year we noticed that the vulture started to train to fly and move to farther distances. And now, 2 weeks later, on May 17, Ushkish has already flown to Kazakhstan! Now he is in the vicinity of Shymkent.

Vultures, unlike other bird species, do not return from wintering the following year. Our Ushkysh spent 20 months in Pakistan before returning to Kazakhstan. During this time many trials were passed, but Ushkish survived and came back as an adult! Unfortunately, not many chicks manage to survive to this time.