The young Egyptian vulture Diego is continuing his journey through the Balkans, which began on 26 April 2021 when, after leaving Basilicata and reaching the coast of southern Apulia, he crossed the Adriatic Sea and arrived in Croatia.
In the following days Diego continued north to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, then east to Romania and south to Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece. After a stop on the island of Kefalonia, Diego headed back north to Albania.
Within a month, this resourceful Egyptian vulture traveled over 4,500 km, recording a maximum spedd of 107 km/h and a maximum altitude of 2,760 metres.
Diego was born in captivity at CERM in 2018 and then he was transferred to an aviary at CRAS in Matera, in 2019 he was released in the Murgia Materana Park as part of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project by the CERM Association and ISPRA. The staff of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project, equipped with a GPS device thanks to the support of the VCF Vulture Conservation Foundation, follows Diego’s movements in real time and, now, also a large group of birds of prey experts from the Balkan countries visited by the young Egyptian vulture.
