After having visited more than 10 European countries since its tracking, an immaturely cinereous vulture named Fremuth flew into Romanian airspace at 13:27 on 19 March near the village of Peregu Mare (Arad county). During its 7-day stay, the bird was confirmed to have eaten the carcass of adeer near Semlac (Arad county). Here it was photographed by local volunteer Sain Nicolae at the request of our volunteer Cornel Cotorogea.

From here the bird headed southeast and after several days of unsuccessful raiding along the Carpathian ridge, reached Suceava county, where the vulture spent another day, probably also finding food near the village of Demăcușa. From there it headed north and crossed into Ukraine at 08:12 on 26 March. This detailed description of the vulture’s journey is intended to give an idea of the vast areas these birds cover in search of food.

As a partner in the Bearded Vulture LIFE project, Milvus Group is responsible, among other things, for tracking bearded vultures that enter our country. The main purpose of this activity is to be able to go to the scene immediately if we detect any abnormalities in the behaviour of the birds and rescue any weakened, injured or even poisoned specimens. As this is an extremely rare species, monitoring the birds’ movements is of great importance. We would like to thank Cornel Cotorogea for his work in processing the data.