Michele Mendi

The species is a colonial breeder, occupying small islets and seacliffs of larger islands; infrequently breeds on mainland coasts. In its winter quarters in Madagascar, it inhabits open woodland and forest, as well as various types of wetlands.  Its global range includes the Mediterranean Sea (E to Cyprus), the Canary Is and NW Africa (Morocco). Europe holds 95% of the species population, Aegean Sea keeping the stronghold with 90% of the European population (Keller et al. 2020, Orta et al. 2020).

European-African migrant. The species winters mainly in Madagascar.

Its population trend in Europe is stable. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2022).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		28400-28900,28600
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 Eleonora's Falcon

The species is a long-distance migrant, wintering primarily in Madagascar, but also in E Africa and a number of islands in the SW Indian Ocean (Orta et al. 2020). It often performs loop migration (Mellone et al. 2013b). Birds breeding in the E Mediterranean (Cyprus and Greece) are encountered mostly throughout the Mediterranean Basin (including mainland Spain), some birds reaching SE Black Sea (Turkey), Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia) and the species’ main wintering grounds – Madagascar.

Birds from the populations breeding in the W Mediterranean and the Canary Is are encountered in E Mediterranean, inland Africa (Mali) and SW Indian Ocean – the region of Madagascar and Reunion Is.

Most of the encounters come from areas where active ringing projects have taken place or are still active – Spain (Canary Is, W Mediterranean) and Greece.

Recoveries by Condition for Eleonora's Falcon

Most encounters are obtained after 2005. They come mainly from the species’ delayed breeding season – peaking in Sep (65%). Majority of encounters are recorded in SW, SE & E Europe – 90% (68, 18 and 4% respectively). Just two marked birds have been encountered prior to 1960, one of them shot.  The encounters based on dead birds decreased from 89% in 1961-1990 to 16% after 1991; those based on alive birds markedly increased over time – from 11% to 82% respectively. The latter is mostly due to ringing recoveries, including colour ring resightings. Shooting was responsible for 37% of all encounters in 1961-1990 but it almost disappeared as a source of recoveries after 1991 (less than 1% of all cases).

Some of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are more than 8000km away from the ringing site.

Annual Movements for Eleonora's Falcon

Birds breeding in the Canary Is and the Mediterranean are encountered at their wintering grounds in Madagascar and adjacent regions of the Indian Ocean in Nov-Jan. The pre-migratory movements are typical for the species, with encounters in Jun-Aug away from the breeding sites, often farther inland (Spain, Morocco, Turkish Black Sea Coast).

A number of tracking studies revealed species’ migration patterns – both spatial and temporal, in detail. Departure time is rather consistent across the populations and it is usually in Oct.

The routes go through W, C or E Sahara, then the Sahel zone, and after passing through W and/ or E Africa they reach their wintering grounds in Madagascar from late Nov to early Jan (adults usually precede juveniles). Return migration starts in Apr, rarely early May (Gschweng et al. 2008, Lopez-Lopez 2021, Lopez-Lopez et al. 2009, Kassara et al. 2017, Mellone et al. 2013b).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Eleonora's Falcon

Mediterranean and Canary Is breeders are encountered wintering in Madagascar (and the region) from late autumn to mid-winter. The species shows strong winter site-fidelity in Madagascar (Kassara et al. 2017).

The species is known to perform pre-migratory inland movements, taking advantage of high densities of insects, up to hundreds of kilometres from the breeding colonies, like in Spain (Mellone et al. 2013a) and Bulgaria (Iankov & Nikolov 2015). Some of the available summer encounters (Spain, Morocco, Turkey) suggest such movements.

Movements of marked birds from the Canary Is population across the Sahel zone were strongly associated to the Inter-tropical Front position in autumn, but were more individually variable in spring (Vansteelant et al. 2021).

Distant (>=50 km) ringing encounters are generally limited in number.

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
BirdLife International 2022 . Species factsheet: Falco eleonorae. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 29/01/2022.
Gschweng, M., Kalko, E. K. V., Querner, U., Fiedler, W., Berthold, P. 2008 . All across Africa: highly individual migration routes of Eleonora’s falcon. Proc. R. Soc. B. 275: 2887–2896
Iankov, P., Nikolov, B. 2015 . Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae). In: Golemansky, V. et al. (eds) Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 2. Animals. BAS & MoEW, Sofiahttp://e-ecodb.bas.bg/rdb/en/vol2/Faeleono.html
Kassara, C., Gangoso, L., Mellone, U., Piasevoli, G., Hadjikyriakou, T.G., Tsiopelas, N., Giokas, S., López-López, P., Urios, V., Figuerola, J., Silva, R., Bouten, W., Kirschel, A.N.G., Virani, M.Z., Fiedler, W., Berthold, P., Gschweng, M. 2017 . Current and future suitability of wintering grounds for a long-distance migratory raptor. Sci Rep 7
Lopez-Lopez, P. 2021 . data from Movebank study 'Eleonoras falcon Falco eleonorae Italy' (ID 960660796) in www.movebank.org.
López-López, P., Limiñana, R., Urios, V. 2009 . Autumn migration of Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae tracked by satellite telemetry. Zoological Studies 48: 485–491
Mellone, U., López-López, P., Limiñana, R., Piasevoli, G., Urios, V. 2022 . The trans-equatorial loop migration system of Eleonora’s falcon: differences in migration patterns between age classes, regions and seasons.
. J Avian Biol. 44: 417–426
Mellone, U., López-López, P., Limiñana, R., Urios, V. 2022 . Summer pre-breeding movements of Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae revealed by satellite telemetry: Implications for conservation. Bird Conservation International 23: 487–494
Orta, J., G. M. Kirwan, E. F. J. Garcia, and J. S. Marks 2020 . Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.elefal1.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
Vansteelant, W., Gangoso, L., Bouten, W., Viana, D. S., Figuerola, J. 2021 . Adaptive drift and barrier-avoidance by a fly-forage migrant along a climate-driven flyway. Mov Ecol 9

Back to Analysis