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Three young Short-toed Eagles were tagged with transmitters when they were yet in the nests in Hungary, Montenegro and Italy in 2019. The eagles now are 2cy immature birds, still being tracked and their migration behaviour is of great interest.

Gábor Papp has collected and summarized information about colour-ringing of Short-toed Eagles in Hungary. The program has been continued for 7 years. The current numbers of ringed eagles, observations and photographing of the birds, prospects of new resightings are described in the communication:

• Gábor PAPP, 2019 – Results of the colour-ringing scheme of the Short-toed Eagle in Hungary between 2013 and 2019 // short-toed-eagle.net (En).

Örs the satellite-tagged Short-toed Eagle, marked as a juvenile in 2017, has returned to Hungary after two years. He hatched in the area of the Kiskunság National Park /map/ being famous for hosting the only known nesting population in the Hungarian lowlands. He spent the past winter in the Sahel Zone on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, a regular wintering area for the species. On the last day of March, he packed up and started his northbound migration, however, he stopped in Central Turkey and we were worried that he would spend the entire summer there again, after the summer of 2018. Fortunately, he decided to move on on June 24 and to our delight, he reached the border between Croatia and Hungary a bit more than a week later. Since then, he paid a visit to Burgenland, Austria and Western Slovakia where he stopped at military bases, which were probably familiar for him since he was born in one of those in Hungary. Recently, he has been in Northwestern Hungary, an area where observations of this species are quite rare.

We hope eventually he will visit his home ground and may also mark a few, so far unknown, territories in the Kiskunság area.

Gábor Papp

The map of Örs’ tracks is available on SATELLITETRACKING.EU.

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!

Within the framework of the Turjánvidék LIFE project, which aims the preservation of habitats of such species as the endangered Hungarian Meadow Viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis), two Ecotone GPS-GSM trackers were bought in 2016. The main aim was to follow the life of a Short-toed Eagle pair residing close to and hunting regularly on viper habitats. Since the capture of the adult male failed in 2017, experts marked the offspring of this pair with the transmitter /map/. The chick was named Örs, an ancient Hungarian name meaning «human», «man» or «hero» but also a name of a Hungarian tribe from ancient times.

Örs left the natal area on October 1^st and its tracks can be followed on SATELLITETRACKING.EU.

The other transmitter was deployed on a repatriated individual in 2016, which died two months later in Poland. Its tracks are not available on the aforementioned website yet, however, another post will appear here if so.

Gábor Papp

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.

The presented article refers to the following: in spring ’81 the author discovered that a nest found in the previous year in the Pilis Mountains /map/ had fallen down. They built an artificial nest and kept watching the site. Later, they observed the pair occupying the nest and found egg remains under it on April 25, so the egg laying took place a few days earlier. It was the earliest known egg-laying of this species at that time. Since the pair was holding the territory they checked back in June 4 and found the female incubating. Despite the repeated egg-laying the fledgling left the nest early August.

• L. Haraszthy, 1982 – Kígyászölyv (Circaetus gallicus) pótköltése műfészekben [Repeated egg-laying of Short-toed Eagle in an artificial nest] // Madártani Tájékoztató, Oct-Dec.: pp. 266-267. – (Hu).

Thanks to Gábor Papp for sharing the text and its brief summary!