Circaetus gallicus information navigator

Kunal Kambli in his recent post for The Weather Channel writes that Short-toed Eagle is among the species whose populations in India have declined in last years according to:

• SoIB 2020. State of India’s Birds, 2020: Range, trends and conservation status. The SoIB Partnership. Pp 50. – (En).

Unlike others, the population of Short-toeds in India is settled. Although, there are no more or less exact evaluations of its current size, it is undoubtedly significant, and the species is under highest legal protection in the country. However, the short- and long-term negative trends are ascertained on the background of the global population trend estimated as stable. This is a kind of unpleasant surprise and causes of the local population decline deserve to be figured out and analysed in details.

This online database contains observations of birds in Western and Central Africa, including many records of Short-toed Eagles in Niger and Chad, i.e. in the traditional wintering area of the eagles from Europe and the Middle East. All records are linked to the map, some of them has photos taken in the wild, exporting data to MS Excel is available.

Askar Isabekov has merged data from different birdwatching websites on the Birds of Northern Eurasia portal. This database allows to monitor appearing new pictures and observations of various bird species in several countries of Northern Eurasia, including Short-toed Eagles. At least 3 out of currently 12 regional sites were mentioned on HoverOverUs before.

The excellent online database featherbase.info contains high resolution photos of bird feathers, various statistical data on their dimensions, useful comparing tools which allow to identify species with high confidence. Also, you can add pictures of your own finds there. Specific information on Short-toed Eagle is available on the separate page.

Several records of Short-toed Snake Eagle at the boundaries of the species range were reported this summer. Local birders informed about observation of an eagle again in the United Kingdom, at Ashdown Forest /map/ in East Sussex: it was seen several times since June 21^st. Unfortunately, the age of that bird has remained unknown. Four years earlier, a young Short-toed Eagle had been observed at Morden Bog /map/, near Wareham.

At the opposite side of the range’s northern boundary, not far from Barnaul /map/, the administrative centre of the Altai Krai, a Short-toed Eagle was recorded this year too. Photos of it are available on the Birds of Siberia website. This time it was an adult bird, as well as the previous one observed in 2016. Also, this summer has brought many encounters with ST Eagles to birders in Kazakhstan, just enjoy the pictures.

More historical data about Short-toed Eagles in Switzerland can be found on a webpage of the journal Ornithologische Beobachter:

• Karl Daut, 1910 – Seltenere Vertreter der schweizerischen Avifauna. Der Schlangenadler – Circaetus gallicus (Gm.) [A rare representative of the Swiss avifauna. Short-toed Eagle] // Der Ornithologische Beobachter, VIII (1): pp. 1-3. – (De).

The former and present state of the species in the Canton of Valais /map/ is described in the communication, published this year:

• Lionel Maumary, 2015 – Nouvelle nidification du Circaète Jean-le-Blanc en Valais [New nesting of Short-toed Eagle in Valais] // Oiseaux.ch (Fr).

The following web resource deserves to be mentioned again: the map of the sighting locations is available for the registered contributors of Ornitho.ch only. However, any visitor of the site can view the photo gallery. The most of the pictures of Short-toed Eagles represented there have been taken in Switzerland.

The new birding database has been created this year for collecting pictures, geographical locations and other data of observations from Ukrainian birdwatchers. Among information on other species, it contains details of new records of Short-toed Eagles in various regions of Ukraine. The site has been made by Askar Isabekov and Andrew Simon as an analog of the well-known project for Kazakhstan that has already existed for 10 years. One more similar website is dedicated to Siberian birds. There is not any record of Short-toed Eagle on the last one yet; nevertheless, even isolated observations made at the edge of the species range would be of the great interest for ST Eagle researchers.