How do you teach a bird how and where to fly?
The distinctive northern bald ibis, hunted to extinction in the 17th century, has been revived by breeding and reforestation efforts over the past two decades. But these birds – known for their distinctive green, black and iridescent plumage, bald red head and long curved beak – They do not instinctively know which direction to fly in order to migrate without the guidance of their older, free-born offspring.So a team of scientists and conservationists stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors.
“We have to teach them the migration route”explained biologist Johannes Fritz.
The northern bald ibis once flew over North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and much of Europe, including Bavaria in southern Germany. Migratory birds were also considered a delicacy and the ibis – known as Waldrapp in German – disappeared from Europe, although some colonies survived elsewhere.
The efforts of Fritz and the Waldrappteam, a conservation and research group based in Austria, They have managed to increase the Central European population from zero to almost 300 specimens since the start of their project in 2002..
The move has seen the species upgraded from critically endangered to endangered and is, according to Fritz, the first attempt to reintroduce an extinct migratory bird species on the entire continent.
But although northern bald ibis still show the natural impulse to migrate, They do not know which direction to fly in without the guidance of their elders born in freedom.. The first attempts to reintroduce the Waldrappteam largely failed because, without teaching them the migration route, Most of the birds disappeared shortly after their release.Instead of returning to suitable wintering grounds, such as the Tuscany region of Italy, they flew off in different directions and eventually died.
So the members of the Waldrappteam stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors for the Central European population, made up of descendants from multiple zoo colonies and released into the wild in the hope of creating a migratory group. This year is the seventeenth trip with human migratory guides, and the second time they have been forced to pilot a new route to Spain due to climate change.
To prepare them for the journey, the chicks are taken from their breeding colonies when they are just a few days old. They are taken to an aviary supervised by their foster parents in the hope that “imprinting” will occur – that is, that the birds will form bonds with these humans and come to trust them along the migration route.
Barbara Steininger, foster mother of the Waldrappteam, says that she acts like “their bird mother.”
“We feed them, we clean them, we clean their nests. We take good care of them and make sure they are healthy,” she explains. “But we also interact with them.”
Steininger and the other foster parents sit in the back of an ultralight plane, waving and cheering through a megaphone as they fly through the air.
It’s a bizarre scene: The plane looks like a flying cart with a giant fan at the back and a yellow parachute keeping it aloft. Still, three dozen birds follow the contraption, piloted by Fritz, as it flies over meadows and Alpine slopes.
Fritz was inspired by “Father Goose” Bill Lishman, a naturalist who taught Canada geese to fly alongside his ultralight aircraft beginning in 1988. He later guided endangered whooping cranes along safe routes and founded the nonprofit Operation Migration. Lishman’s work led to the 1996 film “Fly Away Home,” but it featured a young girl as the geese’s “mother.”
Like Lishman, Fritz and his team’s efforts have paid off. The first bird migrated independently to Bavaria in 2011 from Tuscany. More birds have traveled the roughly 342-mile route each year, and the team expects the Central European population to exceed 350 birds by 2028 and become self-sustaining..
But the effects of climate change are now causing northern bald ibis to migrate later in the season, forcing them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather without the help of warm air currents, known as thermals, that rise upward and help the birds soar without expending extra energy.
In response, the Waldrappteam is testing a new route in 2023, from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain.
This year, the route is about 1,740 miles, some 186 miles longer than last year. Earlier this month, from an airfield in Paterzell in Upper Bavaria, the team guided 36 birds along a leg with bright blue skies and a tailwind that increased their speed.
The entire journey to Spain could take up to 50 days and end in early October. But Fritz says the effort goes beyond the northern bald ibis: it’s about paving the way for other threatened migratory species to fly, too.