Otilia, dumbrăveanca cu transmițător satelitar a pornit spre locul de cuibărit
Otília, the female Roller with a satellite tag from Romania started her spring migration on 3rd April, 2019. Her movement has been followed for more than 300 days already.
Since the latest news she continued her trip to the wintering sites, which was still unknown. She left the Democratic Republic of Congo on 27th November, 2018 and reaching Zambia, she aimed to her next stop. She spent 3 weeks on the lowland of savannahs and agricultural fields close to Lake Kariba.
Location and habitat types on Otília’s stopover site in Zambia
The last phase of her migration has been performed on 10th January, 2019. She has found the suitable wintering ground in Zimbabwe, 300 km from the stopover site in Zambia. She spent the next 3 months in the neighbourhood of Kazuma Pan National Park, situated at the Botswana border, on the northwestern part of the country. Based on the location points Otília moved relatively small distances on the wintering site which suggests that the area had rich food supply.
Otília’s movement on the wintering site
This conclusion is also confirmed by the fact that she started her spring migration to the northeast with a rather fast pace a few days ago and flew more than 300 kms a day. Otília follows the loop migration pattern that is specific to Rollers: their migration path in the return moves eastward compared to the autumn migration route.
She made about 2500 kms in 9 days, still 6000 kms to fly
Currently Otília is staying in Kenya. We keep on following the development of her migration with interest and hope to have answers to our questions once. How long can she fly with this velocity? Where will she have her first rest? When will she arrive to the breeding habitat? Will she occupy the same nestbox as last year?
The landscape of Érmellék in bird’s eye view– Otília’s breeding site
Her migration map is updated every day or every other day based on the data received from her tag. Therefore she can be followed up-to-date on the following website: http://satellitetracking.eu/inds/showmap/?check_344=344
Barbos Lőrinc