THE old saying that birds of a feather flock together is proving true for a rare species fighting back against extinction.
The sense of adventure shown by a young male sea eagle is delighting experts, who see it as evidence that Britain's biggest bird of prey is spreading over the country once more.
The bird, one of 15 chicks released in Fife last summer, has been s
potted on Mull flying with two locals. Officially called Bird F but now nicknamed Fifer in Mull, it has two distinctive white talons on one foot.
It was the first chick to be collected from Norway in 2007 as part of a reintroduction project and the first to be released from holding cages last August as part of the five-year East Scotland Sea Eagle project (ESSE).
Using radio tracking equipment, staff at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds were able to follow its progress.
The bird spent its first month in Scotland in Stonehaven, then, between September and January, moved to St Fergus and on to Findhorn Bay. In February it was tracked to Grantown and now has been confirmed in Loch Frisa in Mull.
Dave Sexton, RSPB's Mull officer, said: "I saw this young sea eagle flying in to roost at Loch Frisa with two other young, wing-tagged eagles."
The team called RSPB Scotland's ESSE project officer, Claire Smith, who travelled to Mull with the radio tracker.
She said: "After a couple of hours I was delighted to see it was bird F."
The full article contains 262 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
