Rare Cinereous Vulture spotted in Finland for the first time

Largest bird ever seen in Finland

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By Juhani Saarinen
     
      A large crowd of bird enthusiasts were on the move on Friday to watch the flight of a large Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) as it soared along the Southern Finnish coast.
      The interest was intense, as there had been no previous reliable sightings of the Cinereous Vulture in Finland. It is the 458th bird species to be seen in Finland.
     
The first sighting of the vulture was in Mynämäki in the southwest of Finland on Wednesday, after which the route went eastward along the south coast.
      More than 100 birdwatchers gathered at the Russian borders to watch the bird cross the border in the early afternoon - at the Vaalimaa border station.
      “The most dramatic and eventful occasion in Finnish avian history”, enthused Visa Rauste, chairman of the rarity committee of BirdLife Finland, which gives official recognition to sightings of bird species in Finland.
     
The Cinereous Vulture is a rare species. Only about a thousand pairs live in Spain, Greece, and other parts of Southern Europe.
      It is a massive bird, with a wingspan that can reach nearly three metres. It is unlikely that a bird with such a big wingspan has ever been sighted in Finland before.
     
Sightings are not officially recognised until an individual bird has been ascertained to have arrived in Finland on its own, and has not been imported, and has not escaped from captivity.
      “There are no indications of an origin in captivity. There are no rings on the bird’s feet, and there are no broken feathers of the kind that can be seen on captive birds”, says Jani Vastamäki, a bird enthusiast specialised in rarities.
      Ornithologists believe that the Cinereous Vulture sighted in Finland ended up in Finland wafted along by warm air currents.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.5.2010


Links:
  BirdLife Finland

JUHANI SAARINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
juhani.saarinen@hs.fi