Nadene Goldfoot
Hundreds of thousands of birds, including birds of prey, pelicans and storks, have begun arriving Israel, as they migrate to warmer climates for the winter. It's migration season! Jewish National Fund experts say that over 150,000 birds of prey, representing 27 various species that make up the migration flocks are caught on camera by nature enthusiasts.
The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight. In the late 20th century some ornithologists argued that New World vultures are more closely related to storks on the basis of karyotype, morphological, and behavioral data. Thus some authorities placed them in the Ciconiiformes family with storks and herons; Sibley and Monroe (1990) even considered them a subfamily of the storks. This was criticized, and an early DNA sequence studywas based on erroneous data and subsequently retracted. There was then an attempt to raise the New World vultures to the rank of an independent order, Cathartiformes not closely associated with either the birds of prey or the storks and herons.
The pelican (henet in Egyptian) was associated in Ancient Egypt with death and the afterlife. It was depicted in art on the walls of tombs, and figured in funerary texts, as a protective symbol against snakes. Henet was also referred to in the Pyramid Texts as the "mother of the king" and thus seen as a goddess. References in nonroyal funerary papyri show that the pelican was believed to possess the ability to prophesy safe passage in the underworld for someone who had died. The oldest known record of Pelicans is a right tibiotarsus very similar to those of modern species from the Birket Qarun Formation in the Wadi El Hitan in Egypt, dating to the late Eocene (Priabonian), referred to the genus Eopelecanus.
The fossil record shows that the pelican lineage has existed for at least 36 million years; the oldest known pelican fossil was assigned to Eopelecanus aegyptiacus and was found in late Eocene (middle to late part of the early Priabonian stage/age) deposits of the Birket Qarun Formation within the Wadi Al-Hitan World Heritage Site in Egypt. Chances are that these pelicans were seen by the Jewish slaves in Egypt for 400 years. 1645 BCE to 1271 BCE.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority has stopped feeding migrating pelicans in the north of Israel this year to reduce the chances of bird flu decimating concentrated flocks. In December 2021, an outbreak of avian flu in the poultry industry spread to wild birds, a first. Among the victims were some of around 500 pelicans that had arrived toward the end of the pelican migration season and had stopped in the Beit Shean area south of the Sea of Galilee.
Storks vary in their tendency towards migration. Temperate species like the white stork, black stork and Oriental stork undertake long annual migrations in the winter. The routes taken by these species have developed to avoid long distance travel across water, and from Europe this usually means flying across the Straits of Gibraltar or east across the Bosphorus and through Israel and the Sinai. Studies of young birds denied the chance to travel with others of their species have shown that these routes are at least partially learnt, rather than being innate as they are in passerine migrants. Migrating black storks are split between those that make stopovers on the migration between Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa, and those that don't.
The Abdim's stork is another migrant, albeit one that migrates within the tropics. It breeds in northern Africa, from Senegal to the Red Sea, during the wet season, and then migrates to Southern Africa. Many species that aren't regular migrants will still make smaller movements if circumstances require it; others may migrate over part of their range. This can also include regular commutes from nesting sites to feeding areas. Wood storks have been observed feeding 130 km (80 mi) from their breeding colony.
"Storks' large size, serial monogamy, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture." They have been good examples for humans.
Resource:
israelAM news
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cutting-back-on-feeding-migrating-pelicans-to-keep-new-bird-flu-outbreak-away/#:~:text=The%20Israel%20Nature%20and%20Parks,to%20wild%20birds%2C%20a%20first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork
https://www.ynetnews.com/environment/article/sykkgzogj
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