Circaetus gallicus information navigator

This video is a compilation of various short parts of the filming done in Northern Ukraine during the last year’s season from spring to fall. The shown moments of Short-toed Eagles’ life are provided with explanatory subtitles. The second part of the annual photo gallery contains descriptions of behaviour and habits of local STEs as well. Please see them under each presented picture.

How different reproduction of different pairs can be? Some adult Short-toed Eagles occupy the same sites from year to year. They had yet been identified in 2011 by photos taken since 2006 and according to previous and new observations. The birds had got indexes A11, B11 etc. although, in spoken communication we give them more harmonious names: for example, K11 is Barry, B11 is Ospry, and so on. Then later pictures of the individuals repeatedly got into the annual photo galleries. The natural identifying details are general plumage patterns, shapes of heads, wings, beaks and general silhouettes in flight from certain angles as well as signs of moulting. The number of the examined images should be enough to select the details and to collate them. Thus, now it is possible to compare the mean reproduction – – of pairs of individuals identified from year to year for certain, definitely without replacements of mates and without clear differences in objective conditions for breeding.

Observations of Short-toed Eagles in Northern Ukraine in 2014 which deserve to be noted:

• K. PISMENNYI, 2015 – Data on breeding of Short-toed Eagle in Northern Ukraine – , XLS file with formulas – ; Replacement of the biggest 14 flight feathers – ; Some short notes on Short-toed Eagles in Northern Ukraine in 2014 // short-toed-eagle.net (En).

The 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.