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Shore Lark - Eremophila Alpestris ©Martin Pelanek/Shutterstock

Shore Lark - Eremophila Alpestris ©Martin Pelanek/Shutterstock

Biking against illegal bird killing in Finland

March 22, 2022
Categories
  • Uncategorized
Tags
  • bird migration
  • Flight for Survival
  • Illegal killing

In 2021, Juha Kylänpää broke a Finnish record in Finland. Travelling around the country on his bike he managed to observe 283 bird species in a single year, passing the previous record of 279 species observed without using any motorized vehicles.

During his bike journey, Mr. Kylänpää collected donations for conservation projects across the Mediterranean area. The more birds he saw, the more money he would raise. In total, he managed to collect over €21.000, smashing his original goal of €6.000.  

The money has been used to fund the work of the anti-poaching unit. 

Breaking this record wasn’t an easy ride. It demanded an almost full-time commitment from the retired priest. He spent more than 280 days birding. His longest trip took him to Utsjoki, in Finnish Lapland. By the end of the year, he had cycled 19 103 km. 

To break the record, Kylänpää didn’t just need determination, but also a bit of luck. When he returned from Lapland, he manged to spot several rare bird species, but other times his luck ran out.  

“At the end of September I cycled at night to a town where they had seen a European Roller (Coracias garrulus), but when I got there, it was gone”  

recalls Mr. Kylänpää.


Nor did he manage to see a Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) some 300km south-east: the bird  disappeared a few hours before his arrival. 

Which bird did Kylänpää break the previous record with? A Shore Lark (Eremophila alpestris) in October at the southernmost bird observatory of Hanko, Finland. He wrapped up his challenge by spotting species #283 – a Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii) – in November. 

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Stichting BirdLife Europe and BirdLife International gratefully acknowledge financial support from the MAVA Foundation, the EU LIFE programme, the European Commission and Vogelbescherming Nederland (BirdLife Netherlands).
All content and opinions expressed on these pages are solely those of Stichting BirdLife Europe.
"Flight for Survival" is partially funded by the LIFE Against Bird Crime project. More information is available here.

Over 25 000 000 million birds are illegally killed around the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the Caucasus every year. For non-rounded, mean numbers, and minimum/maximum estimates, see: Preliminary assessment of the scope and scale of illegal killing and taking of birds in the Mediterranean (Brochet et al 2016) and Illegal killing and taking of Birds in Europe outside the Mediterranean: assessing the scope and scale of a complex issue (Brochet et al., 2018)

“Flight for Survival” is a BirdLife International campaign managed by Stichting BirdLife Europe to raise awareness about the illegal killing of birds in Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Bulgaria and Hungary, and their conservation activities to fight this.” The species storylines for this campaign are heavily inspired by the information available on the migration habits of the selected birds.

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