Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - According to experts, a wild golden eagle has been sighted in the Wetterau for the first time since 1939. The deputy director of the Frankfurt Zoo, Stefan Stadler, discovered the bird on Sunday from an observation tower in the Wetterau. "Actually, I had other birds in my sights when they suddenly flew up," Stadler reported on Thursday. When he then saw the golden eagle, he was initially incredulous, since the bird of prey in Germany can actually only be found in the Alps. "hessenschau.de" had previously reported on the sighting.
Tobias Reiners, chairman of the Hessian Society for Ornithology and Nature Conservation, was able to confirm the sighting using pictures taken by Stadler. "It's a golden eagle that's about a year old. It can be identified without a doubt by its plumage," said Reiners.
According to him, the sighting is quite special, but not entirely surprising. The golden eagle is a "mobile bird species". The young animals in particular like to go on reconnaissance flights and can cover long distances. According to Reiners, the animal in the Wetterau is most likely a specimen from Scandinavia. "There are always sightings of rare bird species in Hesse, but that's often a happy coincidence."
