Circaetus gallicus information navigator

This WordPress site is dedicated to identification of Raptors in the nature. The main idea was to provide easy uploading various pictures of birds of different age and sex, then, to describe and categorize them correctly, developing in this way a rich database for Raptors identification. All photos of any species can be found by one click, ones of Short-toed Snake Eagle as well. Descriptions of sex and age-related features are in English and Catalan.

Several records of Short-toed Snake Eagle at the boundaries of the species range were reported this summer. Local birders informed about observation of an eagle again in the United Kingdom, at Ashdown Forest /map/ in East Sussex: it was seen several times since June 21^st. Unfortunately, the age of that bird has remained unknown. Four years earlier, a young Short-toed Eagle had been observed at Morden Bog /map/, near Wareham.

At the opposite side of the range’s northern boundary, not far from Barnaul /map/, the administrative centre of the Altai Krai, a Short-toed Eagle was recorded this year too. Photos of it are available on the Birds of Siberia website. This time it was an adult bird, as well as the previous one observed in 2016. Also, this summer has brought many encounters with ST Eagles to birders in Kazakhstan, just enjoy the pictures.

Although, this paper is rather old, it can be considered as a good example of a report on Short-toed Eagle rehabilitation. If all similar cases were described in such a detailed way, our knowledge on sexing and ageing of Short-toed Eagles would be much deeper:

• Theo van de MORTEL, 2006 – Voor het eerst een Slangenarend Circaetus gallicus geringd in Nederland [Male Short-toed Eagle found emaciated in The Netherlands in May 2006] // De Takkeling, 14 (3): pp. 232-235. – (Nl).

The article is available on the Natuurtijdschriften site now.

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:

The following extended descriptions of observations of Short-toed Eagles in Flanders /map/ (the nothern portion of Belgium) are available on the Natuurpunt website (Nl):

• Wouter FAVEYTS, 2010 – 2010: een superjaar voor Slangenarend in Vlaanderen [2010 – a bumper year for Short-toed Eagle in Flanders] // Natuur.oriolus, 76(4): pp. 132-134. – . The article contains English and French summaries.

…and other texts:

• Dominique VERBELEN, 2014 – Slangenarend Jacobus zorgt voor spektakel in de Kalkense Meersen [Short-toed Eagle makes a show in Kalkense Meersen] // www.natuurpunt.be.

• Han LAGRING, Gerald DRIESSENS, 2015 – Slangenarend op bedevaart in Groot Schietveld [Short-toed Eagle on a pilgrimage in Groot Schietveld] // www.natuurpunt.be.

We wrote about these two papers (López-Iborra et al., Yáñez et al.) after they had been published. Now full texts of them are available as well:

• G. M. López-Iborra, R. Limiñana, D. Pavón and J. E. Martínez-Pérez, 2011 – Modelling the distribution of Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes: identifying important explanatory variables and their implications for its conservation // European Journal of Wildlife Research, 57: pp. 83-93. – (En).

• B. Yáñez, A.-R. Muñoz, K. L. Bildstein, I. Newton, A. G. Toxopeus and M. Ferrer, 2014 – Individual Variation in the Over-Summering Areas of Immature Short-Toed Snake Eagles Circaetus gallicus // Acta Ornithologica, 49 (1): pp. 137-141. – (En).

Two new works of Short-toed Eagle researchers are available on the Web now. Please, find the abstracts on the following pages: