Bird flies from Finland to Entebbe

Kampala.

An Osprey bird has found haven at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre(UWEC), after flying all the way from Finland in Europe. The bird, of the hawk family, was discovered at runway turf of Entebbe International Airport, by ground staff recently.

Mr Isaac Mujansi, the marketing and business development officer at UWEC, told Daily Monitor that specialists were dispatched when the centre received an emergency call from the airport.

Rescue
“Our team rushed to the scene where they found the Osprey that had collided with a plane and had both of its wings shattered. We had to amputate them when we got it back to the centre,” Mr Mujansi said.
The official said the 1.8 feet long Osprey had a tag ring which identified it to belong to the Finnish Museum of Natural History found in Finland.

“When we contacted the Finland museum, its call centre confirmed the bird belonged to them. They were very grateful to know its whereabouts,” he said.
“This proved to us that bird flew all the way from Helsinki Finland,” he added.

Ms Barbara Arapo, a medical personnel at UWEC, said the Osprey is one of the many species of seasonal migratory birds with each having its own behavioural pattern for migration.

“Some bird species fly away due to climate changes, others are looking for food and some migrate to breed,” Ms Arapo said.
Mr Mujansi also said there has been an increase in the number of migratory bird species recorded at the UWEC centre since December last year.

The osprey
The Osprey is also called the Sea Hawk and is a diurnal fish eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60cm (24 in) in length and 180cm (71 in) across the wings.

It is brown on the upper part and predominantly greyish on the head and under part. The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply and is found on all continents except Antarctica.