High winds kill thousands of migrating birds in
'disaster' over Greece
Swallows and swifts on their annual flight from Africa
to Europe have been found dead across Greece
Flocks of the migratory birds have been hit hard by
bad weather over Greece in the past week
Thousands of swallows and swifts migrating from Africa
to Europe have been left dead by high winds battering Greece, bird watchers
say.
Agence
France Presse
Published
onFri 10 Apr 2020 00.55 BST
The birds
have been found in the streets of Athens, on apartment balconies in the
capital, in the north, on Aegean islands and around a lake close to the seaport
of Nauplia in the Peloponnese.
“It’s a
major disaster,” Maria Ganoti of the wildlife protection group Anima told AFP
on Thursday.
“Over the last three days because of high
winds in the north and over the Aegean Sea, thousands of small birds have been
found dead or gravely injured,” she said.
The Greek
ornithologist association said: “The night of April 5-6 was disastrous for
migrating birds due to strong winds, low temperatures and rain in some regions.
“Southerly
winds pushed flocks of birds from north Africa into air currents from the north
of the Aegean sea and particularly the islands.
“To escape,
exhausted birds, mainly swallows and swifts, which catch flying insects for
food, headed for the Greek mainland.”
The
association urged people to take care in the street, where exhausted birds
often land after covering thousands of kilometres.
Greece is
on the flight path for hundreds of thousands of birds which migrate north in
spring and south in autumn.
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