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Migratory birds found injured or exhausted along one of Türkiye’s busiest seasonal flyways are being treated in Hatay before being released back into the wild.
The center, set up on the Tayfur Sokmen Campus of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University in cooperation with the provincial branch of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, also takes in wild animals such as gazelles, deer, roe deer, foxes and wolves.
Because Hatay lies on an important migration corridor, injured or weakened birds are regularly found across the province and brought in by teams for treatment.
At the center, staff from Nature Conservation and National Parks work together with faculty members and students from the university’s veterinary school to carry out treatment and rehabilitation for the birds forced to pause their journey.
During the spring period, the center received 30 birds, and 10 of them were released after completing rehabilitation.
Those returned to the wild included storks, short-toed snake eagles, hawks, doves, a long-eared owl and a scops owl, showing the range of species that pass through Hatay during migration.
Officials are continuing treatment and care for several other birds still at the facility.
These include hawks, storks, red hawks, kestrels, a peregrine falcon and a moorhen, as the center works to help them regain enough strength to continue their seasonal route.
Nuri Akin, head of the provincial branch office of Nature Conservation and National Parks, said nearly 500,000 birds pass over Hatay’s skies during the spring season.
He indicated that birds are often found injured or exhausted because of hunter attacks, entanglement with electricity poles, electric shock, or simple fatigue after a demanding journey.
Akin said teams follow up on both routine field checks and reports from local residents, who alert authorities when they spot injured animals during migration periods.
He said the birds are brought to the center, treated and assessed by specialists, and those fit for release are then returned to nature, adding.
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