Citation
Arolwg
A new collaborative research study involving BTO has used GPS to track the movements of one of Europe’s rarest birds of prey, the Greater Spotted Eagle, shedding light on the pressures this species faces outside of the breeding season.
In more detail
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The authors thank Kordian Bartoszuk, Denis Kitel, Kazimierz Krzywicki, Triin Leetmaa, Riho Ma ̈nnik, Paweł Mirski, Renno Nellis, Ain Nurmla, Ju ̈rgen Ruut, Dmitry Shamovich, Alexander Sobolev and all the other people who assisted in tagging eagles. The GPS-tracking was financially supported by the projects LIFE04NAT/EE/000072 and LIFE08NAT/PL/000511; Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (project’ Knowledge-based conservation of the globally vulnerable Greater Spotted Eagle in Belarus’); Estonian Environmental Investments Fund; Estonian Environmental Board; and Endangered Landscapes Programme. The Endangered Landscapes Programme is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and is funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.
Abstract
Understanding connectivity between migratory bird breeding and wintering grounds is essential for range-wide planning of conservation activities. We used GPS-tracking to explore the migration of twenty-eight Endangered Greater Spotted Eagles, Clanga clanga from three remaining European breeding populations towards their wintering range, and to identify population and sex-specific patterns in selection of wintering sites. The tracked eagles wintered in three continents, 46% in Africa (mostly Eastern Sahel), 43% across southern Europe (mostly Greece) and 11% in Asia (the Middle East). Migratory connectivity was weak (rM = 0.16) and the population spread across the wintering range was large (1917 km). The three studied populations differed in their migration strategy, with Northerly, Estonian breeders all wintering in Southern Europe and Polish and Belarusian breeders divided between Southern Europe and Africa. Migration strategy was different between Belarusian males and females, with males more likely to winter in Africa than Europe, and on average, migrating 2500 km further south than females. Migration to Africa took longer, but was partly compensated by higher migration speeds. Greater Spotted Eagles wintered in wetland sites throughout their wintering range, with fifteen of twenty-nine birds wintering in internationally or nationally protected sites (including twelve Ramsar sites). Nearly a third of European winterers stayed in the same Greek national park, perhaps indicating a limitation of suitable sites in Europe due to wetland loss or degradation. This highlights the importance of protected wetlands to this species, but also shows their vulnerability to future wetland degradation. Only two of fourteen wintering sites in Africa were under protection, showing a potential mismatch between protection of females and males in their wintering grounds.
