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Diet and breeding site characteristics of six different raptor species, including STE, in Central India are compared in the following article:

• Satish PANDE, Reuven YOSEF, Federico MORELLI, Rajkumar PAWAR and Ram MONE, 2018 – Diet and habitat affinities in six raptor species in India // Avian Research, 9:36. doi:10.1186/s40657-018-0129-2 – (En).

That is a region where Short-toed Snake Eagles have potential food competitors. Besides, data on their diet and habitats in the Indian part of the distribution area are of great interest in themselves.

Francesco Petretti reports the findings of a long term study of the feeding ecology of two populations of Short-toed Eagle in Western Central Italy /map/: Maremma Regional Park /map/ and Tolfa hills. In both areas snakes represented the bulk of the diet, but there were significant differences in the selection of prey species with a higher number of “not-conventional prey species”, e.g. mammals and toads, in Maremma Regional Park and a stronger predation on Hierophis (Zamenis) viridiflavus in Tolfa hills. The study is in progress and will be implemented in 2014.

• Francesco Petretti, 2012 – Ecologia alimentare del Biancone (Circaetus gallicus) in due aree di studio in Italia Centrale [Feeding ecology of Short-toed Eagle in two study areas in Central Italy] – (It) – presentation, 20 pages.

The presentation is published on the Stazione Romana Osservazione e Protezione Uccelli (SROPU) website. It contains tables, diagrams and beautiful photos of Short-toed Eagles and snakes.

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/.

These scenes of life in Short-toed Eagles’ nest were fixed by Bernard Joubert in Haute-Loire /map/ this year:

Area: southern Auvergne. Altitude: 870 m above sea level. Tree: pine Pinus sylvestris. Height: 6 meters.

The egg was laid near the 8^th of April, the hatching happened around the 24^th of May. The young bird took off the 30^th of July, early afternoon. He was 67 days old. It was the twelfth succesful take-off in this site in 14 years.
The first visit – very discreet-happened when the chick was 10 days old. Between the 21^th of June and the 30^th of July, nine observatory sessions (circa 30 hours). Here is a photografic summary.

Bernard Joubert