Human guidance helps rare ibises reach Spain
Fifteen northern bald ibises have joined a growing European reintroduction population.
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Fifteen northern bald ibises have arrived in Catalonia after handlers guided them by light aircraft along part of their migratory route. The project is helping to restore a species that had disappeared from Europe for centuries, although a self-sustaining population has not yet been achieved.
The birds are part of a European reintroduction project for the northern bald ibis. According to The Guardian, fifteen young birds were guided from Austria to a group in Alt Empordà in northern Spain. The birds learn the migratory route by following a light aircraft during their migration.
The species was almost extinct in the wild by the end of the twentieth century. European projects began breeding programmes and reintroductions in countries including Austria, Spain and Andalusia. The birds now arriving in Catalonia will become part of a broader effort to connect migratory colonies.
The Spanish project began in 2024. According to the project organisers, the first group consisted of almost sixty birds in 2025. Birds were released in Catalonia in March 2026. The group still depends on protection, guidance and management to survive independently.
Human guidance is necessary because young birds raised in captivity cannot learn the route from experienced members of their species. The aim is for the birds eventually to migrate independently between breeding and wintering grounds. That process takes years because the birds do not reach sexual maturity until several years of age.
The project in Alt Empordà aims over the next ten years to reach at least fifty breeding pairs and around three hundred birds living in the wild. That is a target, not an achieved result. The species remains vulnerable to disturbance, bad weather, high-voltage pylons and other human risks along the route.
The arrival of the fifteen birds is therefore modest but concrete good news: a new group has been added to an existing European population and the reintroduction is continuing locally. At the same time, the ultimate measure will be whether the birds begin breeding and migrating independently. That evidence is still to come.
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The recent arrival of fifteen birds and the background to the reintroduction project have been described by an independent news source and the project organisations. The text clearly distinguishes between concrete progress and future targets.
- confirmed Fifteen northern bald ibises have arrived in Catalonia. — Reported by The Guardian. source
- confirmed The birds were guided over their migratory route by light aircraft. — Described by The Guardian and the Waldrapp project. source
- confirmed The species had disappeared from Europe for centuries. — Background information from The Guardian. source
- confirmed A self-sustaining population has not yet been achieved. — The project targets and current population size show that this is an ongoing reintroduction project. source
Editor's note
The recent arrival of fifteen birds and the project’s targets were described by The Guardian and the project organisations. This is a reintroduction effort; an independent, stable population has not yet been demonstrated.Sources
- Rare northern bald ibis take flight in human-led European migration project — The Guardian
- News EN — Waldrappteam
- The northern bald ibis project — Openature Foundation
More on this in Dutch media
- NOS — „noordelijke kaalkopibis”
- Het Parool — „noordelijke kaalkopibis”
- de Volkskrant — „noordelijke kaalkopibis”