SmartBirds
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) team has registered a new pair of Egyptian vultures in the Eastern Rhodopes. What makes this discovery particularly remarkable is the fact that the female is already well known to the BSPB team. Her name is Sifera, and she is a graduate of the 2022 of our Egyptian Vulture School – a key initiative aimed at supporting the recovery of the species’ population in Bulgaria.
Sifera was rescued from a wild nest in Northeastern Bulgaria in 2021 after hatching too late in the season. She was then raised at the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Centre – Green Balkans. The male in the newly formed pair is an unmarked wild bird.
The BSPB team has been closely monitoring Sifera since her release into the wild, thanks to a GPS transmitter fitted to her. This has allowed us to follow her youthful wanderings across Africa and witness her first successful return to Bulgaria last year. During this time, she helped us identify a new congregation site for non-breeding Egyptian Vultures near Simeonovgrad. As a result, a dangerous power line in the area was located and, thanks to the effective collaboration between BSPB and Electric Distribution Grid West, was promptly secured to help protect the lives of this globally endangered species.
This year, Sifera has returned once again and found a partner. The pair has settled in a new breeding territory not far from the site where she was released three years ago. Although they have begun constructing a nest, Sifera did not lay eggs this season due to her young age.
After more than 30 years of continuous population decline in Bulgaria, the trend for the Egyptian Vulture is finally showing signs of reversal in recent years. One of the key drivers of this conservation success is the ongoing restocking programme, launched in 2018. To date, six released individuals have formed pairs in the wild.
The programme is implemented by the BSPB in cooperation with Green Balkans and the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), coordinated by Antonin Vaidl from Prague Zoo.
The conservation activities for the Egyptian Vulture are carried out under the project “From Iron Curtain to Green belt”, funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) that is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – a collaboration between the Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge of The Old Schools and leading internationally-focused biodiversity conservation organisations. The University and the ELSP are supported by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.
