Deutsch
Well over half of the German white storks for their flight into the wintering areas chose the eastern route that takes them over the Bosphorus in Turkey, to the Middle East first to Sudan and then to Tanzania and even to South Africa. Often they travel more than 10,000 kilometers. Turkey was and is an important resting place for migrating storks. Although important wetlands were drained in the seventies, the storks still find good roosting and feeding places to gather strength for the next stages. As a long-distance migrant storks are exposed to an abundance of civilization hazards such as electric power lines, intensive hunting, poisoning, and the increasing loss of suitable roosting areas. Storks are real frequent flyers: In the two to four migration-months they fly an average of 150 to 300 kilometers per day.
Text: NABU Berlin
In August 2015 Antje had the opportunity to watch the stork migration near Istanbul for several days. Even black storks, black kites, honey buzzards were seen in larger groups in the air at this time.
