

The recovery of a ringed turtle dove from the Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta (FKNK) Project on the Greek island of Paros has shed new light on bird migration phenomena. Although it cannot be established with certainty that this bird migrated north in the spring of 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 and south in the autumn of 2021, 2022 and 2023 using the 'known' north-east/south-west migratory route over the Maltese islands, it definitely did not use the south-west route this autumn, but rather a south-east journey. This strengthens the belief in the combination of the Central-Eastern flyway terminology.
On 10 September 2024, a Greek hunter shot a turtle dove that had been released into the wild on 19 May 2021 as part of the FKNK Project: "Turtle Dove Captive-breeding and Release into the Wild". This bird, which was fitted with a ring marked "908 FKNK 20" (in 2021 the rings marked 2020 were used, as no release took place in 2020 due to the COVID crisis), was part of a similar group of 350 turtle doves released that day from 'id-Dahar, l-Aħrax,' limits of Mellieha, Malta.
On the same day, the FKNK also launched the project's extended release of 8 GPS tagged birds, which was followed by similar annual releases in 2022, 2023 and 2024. This GPS satellite tagging system is definitely the modern way to track bird migration, as it can provide exact bird behaviour and movements, flight speed, altitude and location, temperature of the bird and location, among other useful information. All this detailed information is not available from bird ringing studies. In fact, this research part of the project has already provided new information on the reference populations of the countries of the turtle doves migrating over the Maltese islands, through the publication of regular GPS tracking reports by the FKNK.
Finally, the FKNK would like to thank the Greek hunter, the Greek Rangers' Authority representative of the Hunting Federation of Sterea Hellas (Greece) and Professor Christos Thomaidis for providing the relevant information. Professor Thomaidis was commissioned by the Maltese Government to investigate the differences in the numbers of Turtle Dove and Quail recorded in the Maltese Islands during the spring and autumn migration periods of 2008 and 2009, the results of which are contained in his 2010 report: "Study of the Migration Patterns of Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur and Quail Coturnix coturnix over the Maltese Islands".
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