diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_migration.c b/src/qemu/qemu_migration.c
index 82d044f591c2fdb225f18270d420c07750abf014..38c07a827b32df0e9822c50395c101046ef0a196 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_migration.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_migration.c
@@ -4519,6 +4519,7 @@ qemuMigrationRun(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     bool inPostCopy = false;
     unsigned int waitFlags;
     virDomainDefPtr persistDef = NULL;
+    char *timestamp;
     int rc;
 
     VIR_DEBUG("driver=%p, vm=%p, cookiein=%s, cookieinlen=%d, "
@@ -4645,6 +4646,12 @@ qemuMigrationRun(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
         goto exit_monitor;
     }
 
+    /* log start of migration */
+    if ((timestamp = virTimeStringNow()) != NULL) {
+        qemuDomainLogAppendMessage(driver, vm, "%s: initiating migration\n", timestamp);
+        VIR_FREE(timestamp);
+    }
+
     switch (spec->destType) {
     case MIGRATION_DEST_HOST:
         if (STREQ(spec->dest.host.protocol, "rdma") &&