This is an adult Short-toed Eagle female. Numerous power lines pylons are situated in its hunting territory. From year to year they are used by both Short-toed Eagles of the pair as perches for hunt. The birds are not afraid of people much.
These photos were taken at a distance of 8 km from Kiev’s housing estates /map/ on August 24th (© Konstantin Pismennyi).
These photos of Short-toed Eagle chick (© Konstantin Pismennyi) were made on a territory of Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park /map/. The chick was 6-7 weeks old. The whole population of Short-toed Eagles is estimated now as about 10 territorial pairs.
You can read more about birds of prey of Mizhrichynskyi Park on a website of Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre. The information is prepared by Sergey Domashevsky there.
Please take a look at the map of main survey area /map/. General description and photos can be viewed below:
The zone has principally horizontal landscape. Large mainly pine man-made forests with oaks, birches and other leafy trees. Many not big rivers and wetlands. Big pieces of water, such as the Dnieper River with the Kiev Reservoir and some of the Dnieper’s tributaries: the Desna and the Pripyat Rivers. Rivers floodplanes are traditionally used as pastures for cows mainly and as grasslands.
Species of the potential prey: Natrix natrix – the most numerous, apparently is staple food of Short-toed Eagle, also sporadical Vipera berus and extremely rare Coronella austriaca; some species of lizards: Anguis fragilis – common, Lacerta agilis – the most numerous.
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Typical breeding territories: old thin dry parts of pine forests. Nests on pines, usually near the tops, sometimes in “witch’s broom”. There are a lot of cutover areas inside the forestlands. A range of known the nest situation heights: 13-33 m.
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Typical hunting territories: large open areas situated close to various pieces of water, such as floodplanes of big and small rivers, grounds nearby marshes and drain channels – usual inhabitations of Grass Snake and lizards.
Here we present three different authors’ texts dedicated to Short-toed Eagles of three different regions: Crimea, Belarus and Turkmenistan. They are extracts…
…from S.A. Bukreev’s book (Ru):
• Букреев С.А., 1997 – Орнитогеография и заповедное дело Туркменистана [Ornithogeography and reserve management of Turkmenistan] – М.: Центр охраны дикой природы (Biodiversity Conservation Center), 159 с.
…from Y.V. Kostin’s book (Ru):
• Костин Ю.В., 1983 – Птицы Крыма [Birds of Crimea] – М.: Наука, 240 с. /map/.
…and from V.V. Ivanovski’s work (Ru):
• Ивановский В.В., 1992 – Трофические связи редких хищных птиц Белорусского Поозерья [Food chains of rare birds of prey of Belarussian Poozer’e] // Оттиск, №173, 66 с. /map/.
This is just a little excursion through Short-toed Eagles’ nesting zones, hunting territories and other places and things, connected with them somehow in Kiev Region (central Ukraine) /map/. We would like to invite you to feel Short-toed Eagles’ world through these images.
This text (Uk) written by eminent Ukrainian expert on Raptors V. M. Zubarovski is extracted from his monograph which in whole was dedicated to Raptors of Ukraine and included some black-and-white photos:
• Зубаровський В. М., 1977 – Хижі птахи (Фауна України; T.5. Вип. 2.). – К.: Наук. думка, 332 с.
This is the presentation of two old texts of the first part of the XX century. One of them was written by Viktor Zebe:
• Viktor Zebe, Oktober 1936 – Zur biologie des Schlangenadlers [Biology of the Short-toed Eagle] – Berichte des Vereins Schlesicher Ornithologen /map/. Just read the translation of it (Fr) from German made by one of the greatest adepts in Short-toed Eagles in France – Yves Boudoint.
The second is Nikolay Gavrilenko‘s work, that is mentioned in the first one:
• Гавриленко Н.И., 1929 – Птицы Полтавщины. Змееяд [The birds of the Government of Poltava. Short-toed Eagle] // Полтава: Издание Полтавского союза охотников: 28-30 (Ru) /map/.
Just download a scan of the part dedicated to all birds of prey on the Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre website.