Circaetus gallicus information navigator

Contributor: Richard Frèze.
Country: France. Region: Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
Departement: Bouches-du-Rhône.

Please take a look at the map of main survey area /map/. General description and photos can be viewed below:

A small population of Short-toed Eagles, of about 10/12 pairs, is studied since 2002. They live on the hills located at the east of the town of Marseilles in the area of “Basse Provence”.
The zone occupies an area of approximately 900 km² but because of strong human activities only a part is favorable to be settled by the birds. Great a difference between hunting and nesting territories can’t be noticed for the region.
The vegetation is made up primarily by scrubland with Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera) and pine forests with Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) mainly.

The majority of the nests are located on slopes exposed to south/south-east and are built on side branches of Aleppo Pines.

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Part with aggregation: You can see here the special phenomenon in my study area /map/, where many Short-toed Eagles flying over one field (aggregation) that is being worked up by a tractor, waiting for the prey (mainly rodents!) to be exposed by the tractor so that they dive quickly on the prey.

Part with Short-toed eagle chasing a rodent: You can see here a Short-toed Eagle chasing a rodent (Gerbil) that has succeeded to get out of a ploughing, and after a relatively long pursuit the Eagle managed to get it.

Catching a rodent: here you can see another part where Short-toed Eagle gets a Field Vole in his talons (you can even hear the rodent screaming).

Attached are some photos of Short-toed Eagles I have taken in the study area /map/ last season, in hand and in nature. Enjoy: