GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Max the white stork, who offers Switzerland signs of the seasons, is on her way back home from her winter vacation spot in Spain. The Natural History Museum of Fribourg, which tracks the bird, says she is now in Montpellier, after a pause near the Spanish-French border in Figueras, and she will now head up the Rhone to her spring nesting area on the Swiss-German border.
The bird, which has been tracked longer than any other bird in the wild, built her nest 8 February in 2011. But she waited until 21 February in 2009, and this year, she’ll be considerably later, given that she has to find a mate once she arrives.
Max the Stork says summer is gone!
FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND – Max, the Swiss-born white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird in the wild, left her summer home in Tuefingen, Saturday 10 September.
The Fribourg Natural History Museum, which banded and tracks the bird, says that for the first time in her 13 years of winter migrations, she left together with her partner, the father of this year’s offspring.
Max winters in the south of Spain or sometimes Morocco and her migration will take about three weeks, with stopovers in France.
The band she is wearing now is four years old and was slightly damaged, according to the museum.
Tracking is not as constant as in the past, and it’s not clear at the moment where precisely the bird has gone.
Max the white stork, in early March 2009, on her snowy nest near the Swiss-German border (photo: Heida Buergermeister)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Max the white stork, who winters in Spain or, some years, in North Africa, has returned to Switzerland, usually a sign that spring is on its way.
Max, 11, is a female white stork born near Avenches, Vaud in Switzerland. She is the longest-living satellite-tracked bird in the world. The Natural History Museum in Fribourg, which tracks her migrations and nesting habits.
She began her flight from Madrid 14 January, was in the south of France 5 February and Monday 7 February she crossed into Switzerland, spending the night in Baden.
She was mating by the first of March in 2010, so she probably has three weeks now to prepare a nest and get ready to welcome a mate.
Max's route since the summer of 2010 (source: Fribourg Natural History Museum, 19.01.11)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The warm spell of the past 10 days has brought tears to the eyes of skiers, watching the snow melt in the Jura and lower parts of the Alps. But for those who hate cold weather, Max has good news: it’s time to return north, as the weather warms.
Max, a Swiss white stork who headed south to Madrid 10 September, began her trek north Friday 14 January.
She took two days to fly 150 km north, to Tudela, northwest of Saragossa, Spain and she is now likely to spend the next month working her way up to the shores of Lake Constance.
Max is a white stork who has been tracked by the Fribourg Natural History Museum, thanks to banding, for longer than any other bird in the wild, 11.5 years.
Her migratory patterns between her nesting home near Lake Constance, and her winter homes in Spain or occasionally North Africa, are watched closely by bird-lovers and weather watchers.
She was the cover girl bird for the Swiss publication Nos Oiseaux in September 2010.
Max and her partner, nesting, summer 2009
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Max, the white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird of her kind, 11 years, may have completed her winter migratory trip, and she is now 110 km south of Madrid.
Max and mate, June 2009, © Heide Bürgermeister
Lunel, France (GenevaLunch) – Max, a white stork born in 1999 and tracked via radio signals in a ring around her leg that are picked up by satellite, is underway again on her yearly migration.
She left her nest in Tuefingen, Germany near Lake Constance last Thursday 27 August, and after a slow start, crossed Switzerland Saturday 29 August and spent the night 30 August in Lunel in the south of France, a flight of 450 km in a day, thanks to northerly winds down the valley of the Rhone.
photo © 2009 H Buergermeister
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The family of Max, the Swiss white stork that has been tracked by the Natural History Museum of Fribourg for the past 10 years, is growing up: the three offspring born 20 April near the German-Swiss border are learning to fly.
Max the white stork and partner, 2009 (photo ©H Buergermeister)
Tuefingen/Salem, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Max the white stork has a new family, with little heads popping above the top of the nest where the 10-year-old mother has been sitting on her eggs. For the time being the number of new little ones is unknown, but between 2002 and 2009 Max has given birth to 20 offspring. She was born in May 1999 near Avenches, in Switzerland, but she and her regular partner meet up and build a nest each spring on the north side of Lake Constance.
Life in the nest has heated up since this 22 February shot of Max (photo © Heide Buergermeister)
Fribourg and Tuerlingen, Germany (GenevaLunch) – High-drama near the Swiss-German border: the saga of Max the stork’s mating lifecontinues. Max, the world’s longest living satellite-tracked bird, spent Monday morning cleaning out and building up her nest with her new beau keeping her company. They copulated several times, reports the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, which follows Max.
Young Max with her mother, 1999, in their Avanches nest (photo: Natural History Museum, Fribourg, Switzerland)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The high winds that tore through Switzerland, Italy, France and Portugal at the end of January caused enormous damage. They also unsettled a bird who has been followed by thousands: Max the Swiss stork.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve/ats, Fre) – If you feel like summer is ending you are not alone: Max, a stork born in Avenches, Vaud in 1999, has just headed south from his summer home in Lake Constance. He is the longest-living satellite-tracked bird in the world and his previous nine migratory trips have been followed closely by the public. In 2006, researchers put satellite tracking devices on 26 storks in Switzerland, of which only 12 are still alive with functioning GPS transmitters.
He left Thursday and slept the night in Vaud before continuing over Lake Geneva and south down along the Rhone River, covering 500 km in one go thanks to strong winds. He flew past Nîmes and on to Narbonne, where he spent last night. He will likely continue his trip via Spain, crossing to North Africa at the Straits of Gibraltor.
- Max’s flight map
- Museum of Natural History, Fribourg: excellent site on migratory bird research in Switzerland
