Satellite Tracking Shows Honey Buzzard Migrates More Than 10,000 Kilometers

The oriental honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus), one of the few raptors that visit Japan in summer, has a migration route that covers more than 10,000 kilometers, as revealed recently by a satellite tracking survey. The group that conducted the survey, including Professor Hiroyoshi Higuchi of the University of Tokyo and Professor Hiroshi Nakamura of Shinshu University in Nagano Prefecture, presented the results at a meeting of Japan's Wildlife Conservation Society and an ecological study group in Shinshu in December 2003.

The researchers used a satellite tracking system to receive radio waves from wireless transmitters attached to the captured oriental honey buzzards. The group could track migration routes in detail, with the tracking information transmitted almost in real time. After leaving Japan at the end of September 2003, the birds flew through China and Vietnam to Indonesia, and then back to Mindanao in the Philippines in December of the same year. The migration distance totaled 12,000 kilometers.

Oriental honey buzzards inhabit hills and groves and have an appetite for bees. The bird's numbers have declined sharply due to clearing of forests, to the extent that it is now categorized as a near-threatened species in Japan. The researchers hope that surveys such as this one can supply information on important natural habitats, leading to the conservation of the habitats, and the species as well.



Posted: 2004/03/05 08:38:43 AM
Japanese version