Late July 2015

The vulture we are tracking has been making some short journeys around northern Oman. The map below is of its movements during 19-31 July.  On 19-20 it was located in the mountains to the east of Samail, it then flew over and spent some days in the hills near the coast near Yiti.  On 31 July it had moved back and was likely feeding at the municipal rubbish dump at Al Amerat.  When one zooms the maps one can see that many of the locations are at electricity pylons.

We have been tracking this bird for almost 7 months now.  During that time, it has moved solely within northern Oman from Quriyat in the southeast to Barka in the northwest. Much of its time has been spent roosting on electricity pylons and communications towers.  It has foraged in villages, on the coast, and at large rubbish dumps, suggesting that the large rubbish dumps are not the only source of food.  It has spent a small amount of time in the protected area of Wadi Sareen, but has not shown any signs of establishing and holding a breeding territory. This is not surprising because this bird is not yet adult.  Also, this bird showed no signs of migrating.  We do not yet know if this bird was raised in Oman and will attempt to breed there or whether it is from somewhere else (farther north) and will migrate back to attempt to breed once it has become an adult.

Movements of subadult Egyptian vulture during 19-31 July 2015