Antikythira: More than 5,000 birds of prey flew over the island in just 10 hours – A new record for Greece

Overall 5,269 birds of prey in just ten hours was recorded on August 28 by the team at the Antikythira Ornithological Station, a figure that represents New daily record for Greece.

As journalist Angelos Angelidis reports in an in-depth article in the Free Press, the number of birds that passed through Antikythera in a single day is roughly equal to the average number of birds of prey typically recorded throughout the entire fall monitoring period.

The overwhelming majority were wasp catchers: 5,229 were recorded, along with 28 lapwings, 11 black-winged stilts, and one golden eagle. The peak of the migration occurred between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., when almost 2,000 birds of prey flew over the island in the space of an hour.

Why do they pass through Antikythera?

Antikythera is located along a particularly important migratory route. For many of the birds of prey heading to Africa in the fall, the island is the last stretch of land before the long crossing of the Mediterranean.

Birds take advantage of rising thermal currents to gain altitude and then continue their journey south with less energy expenditure. This explains why the most impressive concentration was observed during the warmest hours of the day.

The field ornithologist of the Hellenic Ornithological Society George Kouthouridis, speaking to *Eleftheros Typos*, described the day as exceptional, noting that nothing like it had ever been observed on the island before. According to him, it was the best day in the history of raptor monitoring in Greece.

This record is of particular scientific importance. The  ⁠The Hellenic Ornithological Society conducts systematic monitoring of birds of prey on Antikythira, recording not only the number and species of birds, but also data such as flight altitude, age, sex, and weather conditions during their passage. The monitoring program covers the spring and fall migration seasons.

This new record thus highlights a lesser-known but extremely important aspect of Antikythera: The small island in the strait between Kythira and Crete is one of the country’s most important stopover sites for the migration of birds of prey—a veritable aerial corridor between Europe and Africa.