The Eagle That Remembered the Wind: The Thirty-Year Flight Across a Changing World

A male Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), ringed as a juvenile in June 1997 by Simon Thomsett and Carter Ong Smith, may have been one of the oldest documented wild individuals of its species. Fitted with a GSM GPS transmitter at the Kipeto wind farm by Simon Thomsett and Ralph Buij of The Peregrine Fund in September 2021, this eagle recently was found dead, ending a 30-year life. His long life was a miracle not only due to his age, but because of the perilous, industrializing landscape he somehow managed to survive for many years of his life.

Against all odds, the Martial Eagle maintained his territory at Kipeto both before and after the wind farm's construction. Thanks to the millions of tracking coordinates sent by his backpack transmitter and analysed in a recently published study by Kipeto in collaboration with The Peregrine Fund, biologists gained a unique look into his daily flight strategies. The data showed that the eagle spent nearly half of his flight time within just one kilometer of the turbines. He also spent an average of 22% of his flight time directly within the lethal rotor height range. This meant he flew in the theoretical death zone for an average of 53 minutes every single day from 2021 onward.

The fact that he never collided with a turbine blade is a testament to his avoidance behavior. He avoided spinning blades around 70% of the time. When he flew close to turbines, biodiversity monitors at the Kipeto wind farm proactively shut down the turbines, intervening just in time to save his life.

This combination of the eagle’s instincts and human mitigation allowed him to beat the odds. Even surrounded by spinning blades and a rapidly changing, increasingly industrial landscape, he remained in his territory with his mate. He continued to breed, nesting along the riverine woodlands bordering a nearby escarpment and successfully raising two nestlings in five years.

In late July 2026, the male Martial Eagle's journey came to an end. His body was found approximately 10 kilometers outside the wind farm in a remote, rocky, and hilly landscape. While the cause of death is currently under investigation, one thing is certain: the story of what this magnificent eagle faced and survived is an impressive one.