Circaetus gallicus information navigator

The article by Lionel Maumary and others contains the detailed description of the first ST Eagle breeding in Switzerland /map/ in 2012, observations of the breeding biology and the diet data particularly:

• Lionel MAUMARY, Hubert DUPERREX, Jacques CLOUTIER, Laurent VALLOTTON, 2013 – Première nidification du Circaète Jean-le-Blanc (Circaetus gallicus) en Suisse – Observations sur la biologie de reproduction, en particulier le régime alimentaire [The first nesting of Short-toed Snake Eagle in Switzerland – Observations of the reproductive biology, and the diet] // Nos Oiseaux, 60: pp. 3-24. (Fr) {rough translation}.

Short videos representing scenes of life of Short-toed Eagles in Northern Ukraine have been compiled from those that were shot in previous year. Also, you can view here a few tables containing statistical data collected in the region within 2004-2016 years and processed to a certain extent. They include: general breeding success, frequency of nesting tree change, distances between two nesting trees occupied by one pair in two consecutive seasons and between all nesting trees at the same breeding sites, nesting tree diameter, nest height, mean nest departure dates, reproduction rate of certain pairs.

Here is the next annual gallery of pictures taken in Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy Regions of Northern Ukraine in 2016. Short-toed Eagles of local pairs monitored during more than 10 years are captured in them. All the birds are indicated in captions by a letter and a year of the first representation in photo galleries on our site, starting with A11 – the old, very striped and dark-spotted, rather small but aggressive female living in the Mizhrichynskyi Nature Park /map/.

Currently, you can find online full texts of these two articles published in scientific journals in 2004 and 2005. The papers have already been mentioned on our site before:

• Paola SACCHI, Dominga SOGLIA, Sandra MAIONE, Giuseppe MENEGUZ, Massimo CAMPORA, Roberto RASERO, 2004 – A non-invasive test for sex identification in Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) // Molecular & Cellular Probes, 18 (3): pp. 193-196. – (En).

• Massimo CAMPORA, Guido CATTANEO, 2005 – Ageing and sexing Short-toed Eagles // British Birds, 98: pp. 370-376. – (En).

This video is a compilation of various short parts of the filming done in Northern Ukraine during the last year’s season from spring to fall. The shown moments of Short-toed Eagles’ life are provided with explanatory subtitles. The second part of the annual photo gallery contains descriptions of behaviour and habits of local STEs as well. Please see them under each presented picture.

Returning to the important topic of correct identification of differently aged Short-toed Eagles in the nature, Gábor Papp has tried to briefly describe the main characters of juvenile, 2, 3 and 4 cy eagles, and also visual differences between adult males and females. His description are illustrated with the corresponding images. Here is two versions of the text, Hungarian and English ones:

• Gábor PAPP, 2015 – A kígyászölyv kor és ivarhatározása – segédlet a terepi megfigyelések minőségének javításához [Ageing and sexing of the Short-toed Eagle – an aid to improve the quality of field observations in Hungary] // short-toed-eagle.net – (Hu), (En).

How different reproduction of different pairs can be? Some adult Short-toed Eagles occupy the same sites from year to year. They had yet been identified in 2011 by photos taken since 2006 and according to previous and new observations. The birds had got indexes A11, B11 etc. although, in spoken communication we give them more harmonious names: for example, K11 is Barry, B11 is Ospry, and so on. Then later pictures of the individuals repeatedly got into the annual photo galleries. The natural identifying details are general plumage patterns, shapes of heads, wings, beaks and general silhouettes in flight from certain angles as well as signs of moulting. The number of the examined images should be enough to select the details and to collate them. Thus, now it is possible to compare the mean reproduction – – of pairs of individuals identified from year to year for certain, definitely without replacements of mates and without clear differences in objective conditions for breeding.