Three rehabilitated raptors were released south of Gabal El-Zeit

Three birds of prey treated at a new rescue center in Ras Gharib have been released south of Gabal El-Zeit. Egypt Today reported the release on November 8, 2026. The Red Sea Center for Migratory Bird Rescue, run by the Youth for the Earth Foundation, said the birds passed veterinary checks first. Together they spent 70 days in care: 46 for a European honey buzzard and 12 each for a short-toed snake eagle and a lanner falcon.

The female honey buzzard was found at a wind site in Ras Gharib on September 18 and reached the center within an hour, the shortest response the center has recorded. After treatment for a soft-tissue infection in the left wing, vets found she still could not fly because primary feathers on the right wing were damaged or missing. They repaired six flight feathers in what the team called the first surgery of that kind in Egypt, then flight-tested her. She was released on November 3.

The short-toed snake eagle was the center's first case from outside the Red Sea governorate. Found in the New Valley on October 19, she was driven about eight hours to Ras Gharib. Exams found exhaustion rather than a broken body, and she later had trouble standing on the left leg. After rest and rehab she could fly, stand, and walk, and she too was released on November 3. A juvenile female lanner falcon arrived on October 22 from near a wind plant with her eyelids stitched shut, flight feathers bound, and a leg trap locally called a shoukira. She weighed 350 grams. After the restraints came off and 12 days of feeding and care, she weighed 650 grams and was released once her injuries had healed. The center, opened in Ras Gharib in April 2026, said the release was supervised by Egypt's Environmental Affairs Agency. The news is these three birds, not a claim that every exhausted migrant on the Red Sea coast is now safe.