Another interview about the Eastern Imperial Eagle in available:
Interview with Vitaly Vetrov about the Eastern Imperial Eagle in Ukraine
In this interview Vitaly Vetrov talks about the current situation, population development, threats and future of the Eastern Imperial Eagle in the Ukraine and also gives a short overview about the status of the Steppe Eagle.
The interview is also available in Russian.
The 5th Carinthian Raptor Migration Camp 2012 in Austria (near the Italian and Slovenian border) starts on August, 19th and ends on August 28th. In it’s fourth year, this successful raptor camp is a fantastic opportunity to experience raptor migration, meat other raptor enthusiasts and experts and learn more about those amazing birds.
I was there last year and we had great fun and saw many raptors incl. Common Buzzards, Hobbies and many Honey Buzzards. A few observers also saw a Griffon Vulture.
I will be there again this year giving a talk about raptor conservation in Europe (on August 27th).
More information (in German) can be found in this document:
5th_Carinthian_Raptor_Migration_Camp_Aussendung.doc
If you can’t read the German just open the document and at the end you will find the email address of Remo Probst, the guy who is organising the camp. You can ask him further questions.
16 more young White-tailed Sea Eagles from Norway have been moved to a secret location in Scotland where they will eventually be released into the wild as part a the reintroduction program for Europe’s largest eagle in eastern Scotland.
More information can be found on the RSPB website:
Safe arrival for sea eagle chicks
Eastern Imperial Eagle.
© Svetoslav Spasov
The Eastern Imperial Eagle is a globally threatened species with only a few hundred pairs breeding in Europe. A lot of conservation work is done for the species in countries like Hungary, Slovakia or Ukraine.
In Bulgaria the Bulgarian Society for the Potection of Birds (BSPB) and other organisations have been working for many years to protect the small Bulgarian population.
In a new interview, Dimitar Demerdjiev from the (BSPB) talks about biology and conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle in Bulgaria. Dimitar explains the food and habitat requirements, threats like cultivation of habitat, wind farms, reduction of prey species, what the BSPS is doing and much more.
The interview can be found here:
Interview with Dimitar Demerdjiev about the Eastern Imperial Eagle in Bulgaria
Also make sure to visit the following website of the BSPB about Eastern Imperial Eagles and Saker Falcons in Bulgaria:
Conservation of Imperial Eagle and Saker Faclon in Bulgaria
Information about how to support the BSPB can be found on their website (their is an icon for an English version of the website in the top right corner).
http://bspb.org/index.php
More interviews about the Eastern Imperial eagle can be found on the species account on europeanraptors.org (scroll down a bit):
Eastern Imperial Eagle species account
A globally threatened Eastern Imperial Eagle was poisoned in Bulgaria. The bird was killed by eating a poisonous pigeon-trap. This is very sad. For such a rare species, every lost bird is one too much.
More information:
New crime against endangered Imperial Eagle
And a second poisoned bait has also been found:
http://saveraptors.org/en/news.php?id=172
The aclimatization aviary in Kresna Gorge.
© Hristo Peshev
Vultures are an important indicator of a healthy ecosystem. In Europe, vultures today are endangered or extinct in most countries. A lot of conservation work is going on to, protect, restore and increase populations.
In this new interview, Emilian Stoynov from the Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF) talks about the situation of Griffon Vultures in Bulgaria, what threats they face and what is done for their conservation.
Part of the conservation work is a reintroduction program which is explained in detail in the interview.
To read the interview, click here:
Interview with Emilian Stoynov about the Eurasian Griffon Vulture in Bulgaria
Please consider making a donation to the FWFF to support their conservation work. More information about their work and how you can support FWFF can be found here:
Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF)
In order to protect raptors, the first thing you have to know is how to identify them. You cannot protect a species when you don’t know how to tell it apart from other species. Substantial progress has been made in the field of raptor identification over the last decades, and for many parts of the world, dedicated field guides are now available.
And although it is still hard to tell a Greater Spotted Eagle from a Lesser Spotted Eagle, or a Sharp-shinned Hawk from a Cooper’s Hawk, it can be done thanks to several high-quality guides for Europe, and North America.
For South America, home to many amazing raptors including the Harpy Eagle, there are no field guides dealing with birds of prey. There are several bird field guides which cover all species occurring in specific countries – like Peru or Venezuela – but none of these are raptor field guides. And a field guide that covers more than the 1.500 species that can be found in some South American countries cannot devote sufficient detail regarding how to tell a Montane Solitary-Eagle from the very similar Great Black-Hawk. Many raptor species in South America are difficult to identify. And even if a species can easily be identified, telling the sex or age of a bird is often still very difficult – but this information in crucial in doing surveys of rare and endangered raptors.
This is about to change thanks to the effort of raptor identification experts Sergio H. Seipke, Frederick Pallinger, and Darío H. Podestá who have been working on the first field guide to the Raptors of South America with support from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the world’s first raptor conservation organization. The book will cover all the plumages known for the 96 species of raptors occurring in the sub-continent and would arguably be the definitive work for the region. Materials to be included in the book range from 100 color plates, over 250 photographs of wild raptors in their habitat, detailed range maps and detailed species accounts, as well as an extensive bibliography on the subject.
But producing such a book takes a lot of time and resources. It is necessary to spend many hours in the field, in museums, looking at photos, and communicating with raptor experts.
You can help support the production of this book and so help future raptor conservationists and bird-watchers to better identify the Raptors of South America. Telling a Montane Solitary-Eagle from a Great Black-Hawk will still be difficult – but when the book is published, it will be possible much more often.
To learn more about the Raptors of South America book project visit:
You can support the book by making donations to the project (tax deductible within the USA), sponsor the Art Collection Series or sign up for a raptor tour with the book authors (I myself am already planning such a trip in the not too distant future).
And what is better than to spend some time in the field with great experts, watching a Harpy Eagle and doing something for conservation?
Please visit the link below and support the project:
Sean with Common Buzzard
© Peter Bell
The Common Buzzard is a widespread and often common raptor across most parts of Europe. In the UK, it is one of the most common raptors and the population has increased considerably during the last decades.
In this latest interview, Common Buzzard expert Sean Walls talks about the current situation of the Common Buzzard in the UK and also about it’s habitat requirements, food, dispersal and more.
Recently, some people in the UK demanded to make the shooting of Common Buzzards legal again. Sean explains what this could mean for the conservation of the Common Buzzard.
The Common Buzzard is a fascinating raptor and while not as large or impressive as a Golden Eagle, it has a interesting biology and shows many fascinating behaviors like worming, es explained and shown in Sean’s interview.
To learn more about the Common Buzzard in the UK and it’s biology and conservation, read the interview here:
Interview with Sean Walls about the Common Buzzard in UK
A webcam into a nest of a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles in Spain can be found here:
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (northern Germany) 49 hector of critical habitat for Lesser Spotted Eagle (one of the rarest and most endangered raptors in Germany) have been destroyed. The habitat were valuable grasslands use for foraging by 3 pairs of. Now they have been turned into fields which are not nearly as good a foraging habitat as the grasslands were.
According to Birdlife Germany, this is illegal as this was done in a protected area.
You can help and protest against this development by sending a letter to the regional government. More information (in German) incl. information about where to send protest letters can be found here.
http://mecklenburg-vorpommern.nabu.de/themen/landwirtschaft/13746.html
More information about the Birdlife Germany and their conservation work for the Lesser Spotted Eagle and how you can help can be found here:
http://www.nabu.de/tiereundpflanzen/voegel/vogelschutz/schreiadler/pate/index.html