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The following detailed article dedicated to ecological and ethological aspects of biology of Short-toed Eagle had been published 35 years ago. The text addresses a variety of topics and can be of great interest to anyone who is studying the species. It is printed on 87 pages, has many beautiful pictures and includes data on distribution and conservation of STE on the Italian Peninsula:

• Silvio BRUNO, Fabio PERCO, 1980 – Considerazioni ecologiche ed etologiche sul Biancone (Circaetus gallicus) [Ecological and ethological considerations on Short-toed Eagle] // Natura bresciana, vol. 17: pp. 124-210. – (It).

The article is available on the Museo di Scienze webpage.

These fragments of Short-toed Eagles’ flights have been shot at their breeding territories and hunting grounds in Kiev Region /map/ and in Mizhrichynskyi Park /map/ this year. The video is commented on, please, pay attention on subtitles. You can see eagles A11, B11, K11 and L11 in the clip. Certainly, also other more melodious names were given them for routine use. These STEs occupy their breeding sites within the same home ranges from year to year since at least 2006 and 2010. For a regular observer every bird has obvious individual traits. The video without compression can be downloaded.

The northern part of Chernihiv Region, so-called the Chernihiv Polissya /map/, is one of the best regions of Ukraine for Short-toed Eagles’ habitation. These lands, rich in Grass Snakes, Vipers, other reptiles and also in old pine forests, provide the eagles with good conditions for foraging and nesting. An expert in Ukrainian birds of prey, Sergey Domashevsky, during the expedition in 2009 has recorded several probable territorial pairs of the eagles there. Some of them were observed between the Sozh, the Dnieper rivers and Zamglay Bog /map/.

This year a local birdwatcher, Artem Skeeter, has found Short-toed Eagles’ nest at a place where he saw them during a few years before. Artem has discovered the nest just after finding of one old tail feather under a perch at the breeding site. He has managed to take a video of feeding the juvenile eagle by its father on a pine within the site. Also photos of the birds have been taken there in 2011-2012 and this year by Artem and by Andrew Simon, Viktor Moroz and me. This year’s juvenile could already fly on August 9. The date is the earliest known in Northern Ukraine for the last 10 years. On September 9 another juvenile Short-toed Eagle, judging by all, an offspring of the neighbour pair, was observed in the hovering flight over typical hunting grounds far from forests, that is unusually early for this region too.

The phenomenon of Short-toed Eagles’ hunting aggregations was studied by Sameh Darawshi since 2005. Yesterday Ron Milgalter took these video clips of about 30 Short-toed Eagles together, which hunt fleeing small mammals and reptiles above an agricultural patch while the tractor was ploughing the field /map/.

A new article on Short-toed Eagles’ demonstrative and hunting behaviour is presented here by kind consent of the author – Viktor Belik. The article is planed to be published in next issue of the Strepet ornithological journal. This is a generalized result of 40 years’ field observations.

• Виктор Белик, 2009 – Особенности демонстративного и охотничьего поведения змееяда [Demonstrative and hunting behaviour of Short-toed Eagle] // Стрепет. Т.7 − Вып. 1-2 − С. 50–61 (Ru).

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 24^th (© Konstantin Pismennyi).

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.