Sinbad in Madagascar

Sinbad is still staying in the same area, ca. 160km east of the capital Antananarivo.

Unfortunately, no news from Sheba so far....

Sinbad made it!

Finally, Sinbad arrived in its wintering area, Madagascar! The bird arrived on 18 December on the edge of the high plateau of Madagascar and has been staying there at an altitude of 700-1000m since. Unfortunately we did not receive signals during the crossing of the Mozambique Channel. All we know is that the bird was still on African mainland on 16 December.

I am a little anxious that the transmitter fitted to Sheba might have given up sending signals because it has been 10 days since the transmitter was last located by the satellite. We need to wait now to see if there are new signals in the coming days. At the moment we can still be optimistic because the lack of signals can be due to numerous causes (e.g., bad weather, the bird roosting in the shade all day, battery power low, etc.).

Sinbad has changed direction!

Finally, Sinbad also displays a Zugknick and changed migratory direction from southwest to southeast. It left the highlands of Ethiopia and is now heading to the coast. Let's see whether the bird then uses the African coast to migrate further south or whether it just crosses the sea to reach Madagascar!

Sheba continuing southeast

Sheba has continued to migrate southeast and has now reached central Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 30 November and 2 December the bird travelled 850 km.

Sinbad is still in the highlands of Ethiopia. I wonder when it will continue migrating towards Madagascar....

Sheba moving southeast!

Sheba has crossed the Central African Republic and is now close to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After her long stop-over in Chad the bird displayed a so called "Zugknick" (change of migratory direction) and is now heading southeast.

Sinbad is still staying in the highlands of Ethiopia, ca. 150km southwest from Addis Ababa.