Michele Mendi

There are three snake-eagles in the world, two of them resident in Africa, the Short-toed distributed from North Africa ad Western Europe to western Mongolia, wintering across Sahelian Africa. There is also a sedentary range on the Indian peninsula.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		19800-31900,24600
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Short-toed Snake Eagle

Birds from South-West Europe migrate by the Straits of Gibraltar and winter in western Sahel, with two recoveries in Mali, while birds from South-East Europe use an eastern flyway, over the Bosphorus then Israel to winter in eastern Sahel, with one recovery in Sudan. There are very few ring recoveries available to document the migration strategy, most being obtained after 1990, and most concerning dead birds. In this context, tracking data is of interest to document migratory strategy. There are two tracking studies on Movebank. Birds tagged on the Mediterranean coast of Spain wintered in Mali, while birds tagged in Israel wintered in Sudan and Chad. The information is therefore similar to that provided by ring recoveries.

Recoveries by Condition for Short-toed Snake Eagle

Scarce recoveries, few and only dead recoveries before 1990, then only 30% of live recoveries, for a sample of less than 100. Dead recoveries are mainly from southern France and Spain.

Annual Movements for Short-toed Snake Eagle

First-summer birds from South-West Europe mostly stay in Africa, usually moving north of the Sahara (Mellone et al. 2011) are rarely returning to Europe (Yáñez et al. 2014), more rarely staying in Sahel (Jiguet et al. 2012). On the eastern flyway, tracked birds reached Africa during the last decade of September, and returned over the Sinai by mid-March. Winter quarters are reached in less than a week. 

Connectivity by Month by Region for Short-toed Snake Eagle

Ringing recoveries are obtained mostly in Europe, Iberia, mainly in summer months, but also in other seasons. These unseasonal records are linked to a higher probability of recovering a bird in Europe rather than a major sedentary strategy. This is also obvious as tracked individuals are migratory. The few recoveries along the flyways, in North Africa or in the Middle East, are from March-April and October.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Jiguet, F., Chevallier, D., Baillon, F., Ventroux, J., Cavallin, P.2012 . Sub-Saharan staging areas of a first-summer Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus. Bird Study 59 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2011.648607) : 102–104
Mellone, U., Yáñez, B., Limiñana, R., Muñoz, A.-R., Pavón, D., González, J.-M., Urios, V., Ferrer, M.2011 . Summer staging areas of non-breeding Short-toed Snake Eagles Circaetus gallicus. Bird Study 58: 516–521
Yáñez, B., Muñoz, A.-R., Bildstein, K.L., Newton, I., Toxopeus, A.G., Ferrer, M.2014 . Individual Variation in the Over-Summering Areas of Immature Short-Toed Snake Eagles Circaetus gallicus. Acta Ornithologica 49: 137–141

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