Long-distance recapture of a Bluethroat ringed in Azerbaijan

Text © Pia Fetting

Bluethroat 'ZH39059' after ringing © Pia Fetting

In autumn 2017, around 2’400 birds were ringed at Besh Barmag bottleneck. After several of them were re-trapped during the same period on site already, the message of an individual re-discovered further away came up recently!

On 5 October 2017, a Red-spotted Bluethroat Luscinia svecica svecica was ringed as a first year male on its autumn migration. Birds of this subspecies breed from Scandinavia across Russia to China and North-Western America. Their wintering grounds are located in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Arabia and South-Eastern Asia (https://www.hbw.com/species/bluethroat-cyanecula-svecica). Somewhere there the bird must have spent the winter before it was found on 1 May 2018 in Arzamas, south of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Dr. Evgenia Malafeeva, the head of the chair of Biology, Geography and Chemistry at the Arzamas branch of Nizhny Novgorod University photographed the Bluethroat in her garden 208 days after ringing about 1’600 km North-North-West of the ringing place.

The Bluethroat in Arzamas © Dr. Evgenia Malafeeva

Map of the ringing and re-discovery site

Big thanks to the observer and photographer, Dr. Evgenia Malafeeva, and the Bird Ringing Centres of Russia and Hiddensee/ Germany, as well as the volunteers in field who helped to catch and ring all the birds!