Michele Mendi

Eastern Imperial Eagle A. heliaca is distributed from Central and South-East Europe across Russia and Kazakhstan to North-West China. European populations are migratory. The wintering range includes Turkey, the Middle East and East Africa, also from Iran to East China.

Spanish Imperial Eagle A. adalberti is endemic to Iberia, resident in central and western Spain, and colonized recently Portugal. Recent evidence of dispersal by immatures to Morocco.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		3900-6000,4800
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 Eastern Imperial Eagle

Imperial Eagle from Central Europe migrate in a S or SE direction, with recoveries in Sicily, Greece, Turkey and Israel. There are also a few recoveries in other directions, e.g. a few in the Netherlands, another in Spain.

Movements of Spanish Eagle are documented across Iberia only, with no particular orientation.

Recoveries by Condition for Eastern Imperial Eagle

Almost no recoveries before 1990, of mostly dead birds. Half of recoveries are of live birds after 1990, with an increase in recovery numbers in the 2000s.

Annual Movements for Eastern Imperial Eagle

Imperial Eagle. Six adult birds tagged on their wintering grounds in Saudi Arabia migrated to Russia (4), Kazakhstan and China. The distances between the summer home ranges and the wintering areas ranged between 3,900 and 5,000 kilometres (Meyburg and Meuburg 2010).

Juvenile Spanish Eagles often move to Morocco during post-fledging dispersal, and tracking data might document this.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Eastern Imperial Eagle

Imperial Eagle. Recoveries on the wintering grounds range from November to March, though there are numerous recoveries within the breeding range all along the year. Recoveries outside the usual flyway, in West or South-West Europe, have been obtained in September and October.

Spanish Eagle. Most recoveries are of juveniles dispersing at short distances from their nest within a few months after fledging.

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
Meyburg, B.-U., Meyburg, C.2010 . Satellite tracking of Eastern Imperial Eagles Aquila heliacal. Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1155.0564) 6th International Conference on Asian Raptors, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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