A juvenile Short-toed Eagle was released after a month spent in the Rehabilitation Centre «Вільні Крила» (Free Wings) at the vicinity of Lviv /map/ (Western Ukraine) at the end of September.
For the last week, that eagle named Java has covered 330 km and reached Romania. The young short-toed tries to stick to areas potentially rich in snakes, such as numerous river floodplains. You can follow the eagle on the map of its migration which is daily updated.
That bird had been contused about two weeks after leaving the nest. Viktor Shelvinskyi and Pavlo Kruchok provided the best conditions to recover young Short-toed Eagle as quickly as possible. An installation of the Ecotone GPS-GSM transmitter was provided by Andrew Simon as a part of the project on Greater Spotted and Short-toed Snake Eagles in Northern Ukraine launched this year.
Category: People › S ›
Observations & colour-ringing in the Visegrád Hills
Jan 10, 2019 / Comment
This video footage was taken by Vince Schwartz. It presents the Short-toed Eagle pair nesting in the Visegrád Hills /map/ as well as the hunting of the male of an immature pair settled in the neighbouring Pilis Hills /map/ in 2018.
Please, read the more detailed explanation by the author:
• Vince SCHWARTZ, 2018 – Nesting of Short-toed Eagles in the Visegrád Hills in 2015-2018 // short-toed-eagle.net (En).
Many thanks to Gábor Papp for his kind help in preparing this post!
Short-toed Eagle in the NW of Smolensk Region
May 31, 2017 / CommentThe article by Marina Sidenko dedicated to that case of Short-toed Eagle breeding on an artificial platform in the national park "Smolenskoe Poozerje" /map/ was published in Russian Ornithological Journal (Русский орнитологический журнал). Also, her work in cooperation with Viktor Belik is worthy of the special attention (Ru):
• Марина СИДЕНКО, 2017 – Гнездование змееяда Circaetus gallicus на искусственной гнездовой платформе в национальном парке «Смоленское Поозерье» [Nesting of the Short-toed Snake Eagle on an artificial platform in the National Park "Smolenskoe Poozerje"] // Русский орнитологический журнал, Том 26, Экспресс-выпуск 1427: 1372-1375. – 
{rough translation}.
• Марина СИДЕНКО, Виктор БЕЛИК, 2012 – О гнездовании змееяда на северо-западе Смоленщины [On breeding of the Short-toed Eagle in the NW part of the Smolensk Region, western European Russia] // Орнитология, Вып. 37: С. 118-123. – {rough translation}.
Nesting of ST Eagles on an artificial platform
Feb 26, 2017 / Comment
Marina Sidenko prepared this brief report about nesting of Short-toed Eagle pair on an artificial platform (Ru) {rough translation} in 2015. The platform was one out of 63 built in the national park "Smolenskoe Poozerje" /map/ in 2012.
Ringing of Short-toed Eagles in Hungary
Aug 31, 2016 / Comment
The program of ringing Short-toed Eagles is continuing in Hungary; 4 individuals were tagged this year:
3 chicks were ringed in the Zemplén Hills /map/ by István Béres (ringer), József Serfőző (climber), Zoltán Turny and Gábor Papp, nests were on Pinus sylvestris. Ring codes used: blue ring with white letters; A28, A29, A30.
1 chick was ringed in the Pilis Hills /map/ by Attila Feldhoffer (ringer), Vince Schwartz and Levente Kossuth (climber). There the pair has been nesting on oak (Quercus petraea). Ring code used: A41.
According to the Ringing Centre 83 Short-toed Eagles received rings up to date. Most of them were chicks tagged with aluminum rings in nests.
Ringing is usually carried out in mid-July. Totally, 24 individuals received colour-rings in Hungary: 2013 – 3; 2014 – 7; 2015 – 10; 2016 – 4.
The very first observation came this year from the Hortobágy region on July 21. The bird was ringed in the Bükk Hills on July 20, 2014. Besides two observations of aluminium ringed individuals, and a recovery from Syria in 2000 (a bird ringed in 1993 in Tokaj, part of the Zemplén Hills and caught in Syria in 1997 during spring migration) this year’s colour-ringed observation was the first when the bird could be identified. According to recommendations of Gábor Papp, local nature photographers are taking pictures of Short-toed Eagles even from a great distance to be able to check a ring presence and for filling a kind of database of their individual appearances.
Data on Short-toed Eagle in new birding DBs
Oct 28, 2015 / Comment
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.
Findings of the eagles in the Chernihiv Polissya
Sep 27, 2014 / CommentThe northern part of Chernihiv Region, so-called the Chernihiv Polissya /map/, is one of the best regions of Ukraine for Short-toed Eagles’ habitation. These lands, rich in Grass Snakes, Vipers, other reptiles and also in old pine forests, provide the eagles with good conditions for foraging and nesting. An expert in Ukrainian birds of prey, Sergey Domashevsky, during the expedition in 2009 has recorded several probable territorial pairs of the eagles there. Some of them were observed between the Sozh, the Dnieper rivers and Zamglay Bog /map/.
This year a local birdwatcher, Artem Skeeter, has found Short-toed Eagles’ nest at a place where he saw them during a few years before. Artem has discovered the nest just after finding of one old tail feather under a perch at the breeding site.
He has managed to take a video of feeding the juvenile eagle by its father on a pine within the site. Also photos of the birds have been taken there in 2011-2012 and this year by Artem and by Andrew Simon, Viktor Moroz and me. This year’s juvenile could already fly on August 9. The date is the earliest known in Northern Ukraine for the last 10 years. On September 9 another juvenile Short-toed Eagle, judging by all, an offspring of the neighbour pair, was observed in the hovering flight over typical hunting grounds far from forests, that is unusually early for this region too.
