This document describes the problem of relationships between man and bird regarding methods of the colour marking. The text is available in French and in English now. Also you can say your opinion on the subject making the comment on the Manifeste anti-plastique blog in French or right here in English. As Short-toed Eagle researchers use the colour ringing and the alar marking methods in their work the question must be topical for them.
This text opening La Plume du Circaète n° 6 was written by Bernard Joubert and translated to English by Yves Forget. This view of birds studies can be interesting for Short-toed Eagle watchers and researchers in other countries:
For many of us, a bird of prey is much more than a flying machine.
It is first of all an elegant bird of an absolute beauty. It is the being who breathes, who eats, communicates, moves, suffers, reproduces, interacts, fears. In brief, a being on the whole not so remote from us. If we take a good look at it, we are amazed by the subtlety of the strategies which it shows to continue to live in its environment.
If it is almost impossible for the observer who makes the effort to look at him simply, not to develop a certain shape of empathy (sorry Mister Lorenz!), this one can nevertheless keep a certain distance face to face of its subject of observation, a certain objectivity and so develop a speech which we can qualify as scientific.
For some, however, the bird never becomes a close friend. It is never the young-nervous-male-from-the-rocky-valley or just as well the dark-not-so-wild-female. It still remains an animal, a lower being to whom we are entitled to make everything undergo, in defiance of its identity, of its beauty and – who knows? – of its emotionality. And so much the worse for the sublime wanderer transformed in a bum by a piece of plastic.
And so much the worse for the dreamers, the aesthetes and the other visionaries who have an aggravated sensibility.
They are not serious.
But, this sensibility, isn’t it all the essence of our humanity? And doesn’t it not open the doors of the knowledge as wide as that of professed researches where the identity of the bird is corrupted without the shadow of a scruple?
This is the third time we bring to your attention GREFA and their successes in breeding and following release of Short-toed Eagles.
The second thing is an appearance of the Observado.org website as a global version of Waarneming.nl we told about before. Please take a look at the ‘About this species’ right column menu there.
Visit please Javier Blasco-Zumeta’s site to find some information on identification of birds in nature. This information sheet – 
(En) on two pages with demonstrative photos (moult and age-specific changes) – could be helpful in the field together with article of Guido Premuda and Andrea Corso about the plumage characters. Also we have the fullsized illustrations to view the plumage more particularly.
For the first time we present such weighty material as a 28 minutes film on the site. The video was made by Françoise Gérardin in Gironde /map/ in August, 2003 by digital video-camera from the special hiding-place at a distance of 23 metres from rather low situated Short-toed Eagle’s nest. Please read the introduction (En) written by the film’s author. Some single frames of the film are presented below.
Besides, you can download the video (.avi) file and subtitles (Fr):
– Jean-le-Blanc au pays des sorcières. The subtitles (heartfelt thanks to Yves) can be used for the machine translation, if you need it.
Just a few words about a section dedicated to the subject of Sameh’s research “Agricultural influences on the ecology of the Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) in the Judean slopes” /map/ on The Jerusalem Bird Observatory website.
The section, which can be rated as an independent site, includes such subsections as Gallery, Team, Research, Transmitters & Migration, About me and so on. You can find there notes and many photos illustrating the study development.
This not big text written by Sameh Darawshi represents his project of researching Short-toed Eagles:
• Sameh Darawshi, 2006 – Aggregation, movement dynamics and feeding habits of the Short-toed Snake-Eagle in relation to agricultural activities in the Judean slopes // short-toed-eagle.net (En) /map/.
This text may be regarded as a preview of the great and long-term research of Short-toed Eagles in the Middle East.