We would like to bring to your attention the 5th gallery of photos taken by Bernard Joubert at a nest of Short-toed Eagle in Haute-Loire /map/. Although the pair has eventually occupied another (last year’s) nest for the breeding, Bernard’s camera has captured scenes of the early nesting behaviour of the birds. Thanks to the researcher, we have a possibility to see unique moments of this eagles’ life once again.
At this time, when Short-toed Eagles are arriving to their breeding sites in northern parts of their European and Asian areal, we would like to draw your attention to the article about Short-toed Eagle from the monograph of Dr. Alexander Abuladze:
• Abuladze A., 2013 – Materials towards a Fauna of Georgia. Is. VI. Birds of Prey of Georgia. – Tbilisi. – 218 pp.: Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus Gmelin, 1788 – P. 65-71. (En).
Heartfelt thanks to the author for sharing the text and photos of habitats! Johannes Jansen‘s review of the book can be found here.
The study had been conducted in a region of Gibraltar /map/ in 2009-2012. Antonio-Román Muñoz presented some results at the Conference on Wind Power and Environmental Impacts Stockholm 5-7 Feb 2013. Also you can get general ideas about the main research directions of the group of Spanish biologists:
• Beatriz YÁÑEZ, Antonio-Román MUÑOZ, Beatriz MARTIN, Manuela DE LUCAS, Bert TOXOPEUS & Miguel FERRER, 2013 – Effects of wind farms on local and migratory populations of Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus – 
(En) – presentation, 31 pages.
The presentation is available on a website of The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, as well as abstracts of the conference – (En).
Monitoring of 9 different pairs of Short-toed Eagles has been conducted during 10 years in Northern Ukraine (Kiev Region /map/, Mizhrichynskyi Park /map/ of Chernihiv Region, southern part of Sumy Polissya /map/). Some calculations and results of the monitoring are represented in tabular forms:
• K. PISMENNYI, 2013 – Some data on breeding of Short-toed Eagle in Northern Ukraine // short-toed-eagle.net – ; in the form of XLS file with formulas: (En).
Average breeding success amounts to 0.60 juvenile / territorial pair and is quite close to this index for France: 0.57. The last result is based on observations of 2835 (!) breeding cases which have been managed to make by French national Circaetus gallicus network for 11 years (Bernard Joubert, personal communication). Also some other conclusions can be made: old pines (Pinus sylvestris) are prefered by Short-toed Eagles for nesting in Northern Ukraine; the eagles more often change their nests than they successfully breed; nest height is highly variable; the eagles’ choice of a nest depends on their previous breeding success; after an unsuccessful season the nest is changed with high probability, after successful one the following choice of a nest is unpredictable.
During 10 years of observations in Central Northern Ukraine (Kiev Region /map/, Mizhrichynskyi Park /map/) a lot of photos of several the same Short-toed Eagles have been taken. Some of them can be viewed in the galleries (just an example). Since Short-toed Eaglers’ the biggest flight feathers are often seen from a great distance they are easily recognizable in photos. Especially it concerns 4th-10th primaries of both wings. Accumulation of data allowed to determine inter-moulting periods of certain feathers:
• K. PISMENNYI, 2013 – Short-toed Eagle. Replacement of the biggest 14 flight feathers // short-toed-eagle.net – (En).
First of all, the results might be of interest as additional information for recognizing individuals in the nature from year to year, together with individually typical plumage colouration and silhouettes in flight at certain angles in certain poses. Regular photographing of Short-toed Eagles at their breeding sites and foraging grounds allows to distinguish them with high probability without special marking, without stressing and often even without disturbing the birds at all.
The interview has been published on the European Raptors website yet on March 12. This, already the forth one dedicated to Short-toed Eagle on the site, was taken by Markus Jais on February 20. This time Gregorio Moreno-Rueda shares his knowledge about the feeding ecology of Short-toed Eagles in Spain, their threats, why they lay only one egg and how the future looks like for those impressive raptors in that impressive country.
This gallery contains some photos of Short-toed Eagle taken in Northern Ukraine this year. As usual, it is planned to be updated with new pictures if I manage to take something interesting. They may be not as of high quality as of interest for Short-toed Eagle watchers. That is why all of them are commented in detail. Single eagles are named individually with alphanumeric code, for example: “A11” means bird “A” of the gallery of 2011, but “A” without a number here means that the individual has not been marked yet in previous galleries.
