First satellite-tracked migration of an Eurasian Thick-knee (Burhinus oedicnemus) in the Middle East ends in human-caused mortality

Abstract

Eurasian Thick-knee (Burhinus oedicnemus) is a widespread wading bird that occurs throughout much of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. We captured a juvenile specimen at the Aras River Ornithological Research Station, Turkey in October 2019, fitted it with a GPS-GSM transmitter, and tracked its migration. The bird migrated from Turkey in late October, made an eight-day stopover in northern Iraq, and then flew southwest to the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. The bird was killed in early November by a falcon being flown for falconry near Yanbu Al Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia. The thick-knee migrated more than 2100 km in 36 days between tagging and death. This study provides the first description of Eurasian Thick-knee migration in the Middle East, as well as the first description of autumn migration of this species from satellite-tracking data.

Keywords:

• Falconry
• hunting
• satellite telemetry
• movement ecology
• Stone-curlew

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Turkey’s Department of Nature Conservation and National Parks and the Iğdır Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for providing us with the permits for this study. We thank A. Çoban, E. Çoban, N. Güven, KuzeyDoğa Society, Koç University, Iğdır University, University of Utah, the residents of Yukarı Çıyrıklı, and the dozens of volunteers at the Aras River Ornithological Research Station for their support. This research was supported by generous donors, including Arkadaşlar, B. Bahar, S. İşmen, Ö. Külahçıoğlu, B. Över, B. Özkan, A. Peterson, E. Özgür, S. Reyent, B. Watkins, Conservation Ecology Graduate Fellowship Fund, Environmental Studies Graduate Fellowship Fund, Turkey Mozaik Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, STGM, TANAP and the Whitley Fund.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.