Eastern Imperial Eagle embarks on tour of north-west Europe

An Eastern Imperial Eagle that was tagged with a satellite transmitter in Austria is causing a stir after embarking on a tour of several north-west European countries.

The young eagle, known as Artemisia, was fitted with the device in northern Burgenland in 2021 and went on to spend much of the winter in Greece.

However, Artemisia has begun a show-stopping tour in recent days, exciting birders across several countries where the species remains an extremely rare vagrant.

Her northward migration took her over Austrian airspace and into central Germany before turning west, passing to the north of Dortmund and Dusseldorf. Then she turned south again, entering Belgian airspace (becoming just the third national record there in the process), before continuing into Luxembourg.

Artemisia pictured during her short stay in Luxembourg (Patric Lorge).

Luxembourg had never previously recorded Eastern Imperial Eagle, meaning Artemisia's appearance in the country represented a national first. Fortunately, she roosted overnight and was seen by a small number of happy birders on 25 March.

Artemisia was not done there, though: her continued journey took her west into France, moving south of Auxerre and then settling on 28 March near Limoges, not far from the Atlantic coast.

You can follow Artemisia's progress at birdlife.at/page/greifvoegel or via the BirdLife Österreich Facebook page.