Michele Mendi

A small forest eagle with different plumage morphs, distributed from North Africa and Iberia to northern Mongolia, though at low latitudes in Europe. Migratory, even if some individuals are resident. Winter range in whole sub-Saharan Africa, except equatorial forests; also the Indian peninsula.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		46600-60500,52100
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 Booted Eagle

The bulk of the European population, and of the ringing effort, is in Iberia, and these birds migrate by Gibraltar and winter in Sahel, with recoveries in Mali, Upper Volta, Togo and Nigeria. Some individuals remain however in Spain (Mellone 2021), others use a central flyway by Italy, a route holding recently increasing numbers, but highly variable between years. A few ring recoveries illustrate this new casual route, while only a few recoveries document the eastern flyway of birds ringed in Israel and recovered in Turkey and Russia.

Recoveries by Condition for Booted Eagle

Mostly dead recoveries, obtained after 1960, while live recoveries represent 3% before 1990, 20% after. So the observed pattern rely on birds that failed to survive or were killed.

Annual Movements for Booted Eagle

Concerning long-distance migratory individuals, tracked Spanish birds took three to four weeks to reach the wintering grounds; from mid-September to mid-October in autumn, and mainly in March in spring (Urios et al. 2017). After passing the straits of Gibraltar, the migration routes are continental, crossing the Sahara across a large belt, from eastern Mauritania to western Niger, wintering from Mali to Chad, north of the tropical forest belt (Urios et al. 2017). A breeding female from France migrated to the same Nigerian region in successive years, arriving and initiating migrations at similar dates, shifting from a first to a second wintering range during the winter (Chevallier et al. 2010).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Booted Eagle

Recoveries of South-West birds in Sahelian Africa range from December to April, while there are recoveries in Iberia all along the year, attesting the residency or short-distance movements of some individuals. But long-distance movements are not the majority because their detectability if far lower. There are two unusual recoveries in Africa in July. There is no preferential months for recoveries of Spanish just across the Straits of Gibraltar, so the potential migration timing there is hidden by short-distance dispersal along the year.

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
Chevallier, D., Jiguet, F., Nore, T., Baillon, F., Cavallin, P.2010 . Satellite tracking of a Booted Eagle Aquila pennata during migration. Ringing & Migration 25 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03078698.2010.9674418) : 62–64
Mellone, U.2021 . Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus. In: Panuccio, M., Mellone, U., Agostini, N., Migration strategies of birds of prey in Western Palearctic. ISBN: 9781351023627CRC Press
Urios, V., Bermejo, A., Vidal-Mateo, J. y De la Puente, J. (Eds.)2017 . Migración y ecología espacial de la población española de águila calzada. Monografía n.º 2 del programa Migra. SEO/Birdlife, Madrid, Spainhttp://www.seo.org/boletin/seguimiento/migracion/02_aguila_calzada/pdf/Migra%202%20calzada.pdf

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