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An eagle traveller from Bulgaria's Dobrudzha is flying over Africa

Photo: sidp.bg

From September 2023, Iliya the Eagle has been flying above Africa and for the second year in a row has been circling above Congo, Zambia and Botswana, where summer is in full swing. The bird, which acquired a transmitter under the "Eagle's Lands and Forests" project, turned out to be the biggest travelлer among all the lesser spotted eagles that ornithologists from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds have been monitoring for several years. 


Iliya hatched in 2022 in a nest near the village of Alexandria in the Dobrich region. The bird was discovered by the ornithologist Mikhail Iliev, who is also the godfather of the eagle. Last year they expected Iliya to return to Bulgaria, but all summer the bird wandered around Turkey, crossing thousands of kilometers along the Black Sea coast, around the city of Eskisehir and Ankara. 

The little eagle from Bulgaria is the only one with a transmitter under the project which did not return to its homeland.



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