We, Roman Vatrasevich and I, began to photograph one male Short-toed Eagle right after his arrival at the breeding territory in Mizhrichynskyi Park /map/, were taking the photos every 5-8 weeks and finished to do it about a week before his departure to Africa. We aimed to record the moulting of the biggest primaries.
These photos of Short-toed Eagle nest were taken by Sergey Domashevsky this year during an expedition to Eastern Kazakhstan /map/. You can read about the expedition in detail on the UBPRC website. The photographed Short-toed Eagle nest was situated very low above the ground on the saxaul, that is typical for the semi-desert zone. The parents were still incubating their egg at the end of June.
Dear Circaetus gallicus lovers and researchers! Let us, please, invite you to contribute your photos (info@short-toed-eagle.net) of the Eagles of age and sex known for certain. These photos will be inserted into the special gallery which has been created on initiative of Francesco Petretti. We aim to make something like an online handbook to help to describe differences between sexes and ages of Short-toed Eagle and finally to make their field identification easier. Each contributed photo should be supplied with information, examples of which can already be seen below each inserted image.
Konstantin Pismennyi
Shot in: Kiev Region /map/, Mizhrichynskyi Park /map/, Sumy Polissya /map/
This story is published on the Infos Étang de Berre website:
• René Coste, 2010 – Le sauvetage de «Balthazar», le circaète blessé, les amoureux des beaux oiseaux et, un vent de colère [Salvation of «Balthazar» – a wounded Short-toed Eagle] – 
(Fr).
It has reminded me a story of «Jeanne» – an invalid young Short-toed Eagle, which had been found at the nesting site with a broken right wing in 2008. A short article about the bird was written by me and was kindly translated by Bernard Joubert for its publication in the 8th issue of La Plume du Circaète. The eagle had lived 2 years and finally died on August 5th 2010 in the Odessa Zoo.
Veterinarians made the post-mortem examination, which showed not only a reason of the death – the bad condition of the bird’s digestive system, but also that «Jeanne» had actually been a male. My mistake in determination of the bird’s sex had been made because of several reasons:
These photos were taken in the national park "Smolenskoe Poozerje" /map/ by Marina Sidenko in 2009-2010 years. Two Short-toed Eagles’ nests were found there at the same nesting site. Many thanks to Marina for the comments on every picture!
Intraspecies communication and contest behaviour
For 3 hours, the 24th March 2010, I am the witness of a specific behavior between a male and an intruding female. The scene takes place on a nest, two weeks before the laying-date. At first, the male “marks” his site ostensibly. An unknown female, interested by the nest appears …
Bernard Joubert, Haute-Loire /map/
