TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Kinmen National Park Administration said Thursday that two rehabilitated birds of prey completed migrations of more than 3,000 kilometers after being tracked with satellite transmitters.
Park officials said this was the first year satellite transmitters were used to monitor rehabilitated raptors after their release. The data helped update the status of the two birds and provided new information for conservation and migration research, per CNA.
The two birds fitted with transmitters were an eastern buzzard and a short-eared owl. Both were released into the wild in early March after completing rehabilitation.
According to tracking data, the birds remained in Kinmen for about a month after their release as they recovered and adapted to the wild. They later began their northward migrations in late March and early April.
The eastern buzzard departed from Beishan Cliff on March 29 and traveled through Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia. Officials said the bird maintained a steady pace, making several short stops in forested areas before arriving in Heilongjiang Province on April 18, completing a migration of about 3,400 kilometers over 21 days.
The short-eared owl began its migration from Jimingshan on April 4, flying through Quanzhou before passing Zhejiang, Beijing, Shandong, and Liaoning and arriving at breeding grounds near the borders of Mongolia, China, and Russia on April 19, covering approximately 3,600 kilometers in 15 days, per CNA.
The park said rehabilitation of injured wildlife has traditionally relied on passive reporting methods such as leg bands. In contrast, the new satellite tracking project enables direct monitoring and has already produced two successful cases.
Park officials said satellite tracking has provided valuable data on raptor wintering habitats, ecology, and migration routes. As the birds moved into areas with weak satellite signals, monitoring of their northward journeys has temporarily ended, but officials hope signals from the two birds will reappear during the autumn and winter migrations if they return to Kinmen.
