Tourists can join ‘birdman’ alongside the migrating birds
58-year-old Christian Moullec from Cantal in France has been dubbed the ‘birdman’ since he began flying with migrating geese and cranes back in 1995.
Moullec started flying his microlight with the lesser white-fronted geese after he discovered they were struggling with their migration from Germany to Sweden and took to the skies alongside them to help them migrate to areas where they were protected and prevent the species numbers declining.
From March through October, he shares his passion with others by taking tourists up to fly with birds for 30 minute flights. Check him out in action here:
Birdman’s passion
Moullec is a meteorologist by trade and began his avian conservation efforts in Lapland in ‘95 by attempting to reintroduce orphaned lesser white-fronted geese into the wild that he had trained. Speaking to National Geographic he said:
“At the beginning it was very difficult for me. The birds didn’t want to follow me.”
“A third of wild birds have disappeared from Europe during the last 30 years, because of man. It’s a disaster. My beautiful images with flying birds should be used to tell this story. The famous French writer Victor Hugo said that the beautiful is more useful than the useful, so I hope that the beautiful images of my birds in flight will be useful to migratory birds and to humans”
Tourists from all over the world travel to France to fly with Moullec and his birds for what he claims is an “overwhelming spiritual experience”. Flying from the aerodrome of Coltines in Saint-Flour, Cantal, a trip will cost you around €636.
Fancy a flight with the ‘Birdman’? Let us know in the comments below. Check out this wildlife story.
