Journeying to warmer climes for the winter, a flock of northern bald ibis tails a microlight aircraft, spurred on by whoops of encouragement from their human foster parents.
This annual ritual is the culmination of months of painstaking conservation work. Since 2004, Austria’s Waldrapp team has been teaching captive-bred ibis chicks their long-forgotten migration routes from breeding grounds north of the Alps.
“It’s a special time,” says ‘bird mum’ Barbara Steininger, one of Waldrapp’s foster parents. “You’re not flying alone, you’re flying with the birds. And not any birds: they’re the birds you raised by hand. We know each of them individually. It’s very cool.”
