Circaetus gallicus information navigator

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

Excellent pictures of Short-toed Snake Eagles taken by Spanish wildlife photographer Jorge Rubio are available in the special gallery on his personal website. Adult eagles at their nest and moments of their family life are represented there.

We are continuing to collect various texts about Short-toed Eagle records and observations in various regions. Along records in modern online databases, they give the fuller patern of the species distribution and its evolution within recent decades:

This old paper, dedicated to study of Short-toed Eagle diet in the Capanne di Marcarolo Natural Regional Park /map/ at the end of XX century, is available on the Carmagnola Natural History Museum site:

• Massimo CAMPORA, Silvia ALBERTI, 1997 – Osservazioni sulla dieta del biancone (Circaetus gallicus) in un’area dell’Appennino settentrionale [Observations on Short-toed Eagle diet in Northern Appennines (Italy, NW)] // Rivista Piemontese di Storia Naturale, 18: 233-239. – (It).

An article about breeding of Short-toed Eagles in Surendranagar District /map/ has been published in the Indian BIRDS – Journal of South Asian Ornithology this year. Such releases are always of great interest because observation data on Indian Short-toed Eagles are rarely available on the Web:

• Devvratsinh MORI, Raju VYAS & Kartik UPADHYAY, 2017 – Breeding biology of the Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus // Indian BIRDS. Vol. 12, No. 6: pp. 149-156. – (En).

Here are some brief reports about Short-toed Eagles in different regions of Belarus. The first one was prepared by nature photographer Pavel Lychkousky and contains a lot of beautiful pictures of the birds at their nest. The nest was found in the vicinity of Ivatsevichy town /map/ this year. The author of the second one is Denis Kitel, known Belarusian expert in local birds of prey. The north of Vitebsk Region /map/ is an area of his work now (Ru):

Compiling of the next annual gallery has been started, the gallery of photos taken in different regions of Northern Ukraine this year. Each Short-toed Eagle identified individually is indicated, as always, in captions by a letter and a year of the first representation in photo galleries on the site. The collection will be updated after the season.