BirdLife Austria says the nation’s inhabitants of Eastern Imperial Eagle is now the best it has been because the hen of prey returned there in 1999.
Previously, the eagle had been absent from Austria for almost 190 years attributable to heavy persecution. BirdLife Austria has been intently monitoring the Eastern Imperial Eagle inhabitants because the birds first returned and their fieldwork reveals that 42 pairs had been holding territory within the nation in 2023.
Illegal persecution nonetheless threatens Austria’s Eastern Imperial Eagle inhabitants, however 2023 noticed the best variety of territorial pairs for over 200 years (Kuzey Cem Kulaçoğlu).
Targeted conservation efforts in Hungary and Slovakia are credited with aiding the eagle’s restoration within the Pannonian area and reversing its extinction in Austria, which is on the western restrict of the hen’s vary.
Along with finding and recording territories, BirdLife Austria has employed measures to counter unlawful persecution and disturbance. Young Eastern Imperial Eagles have been fitted with satellite tv for pc tags to file their actions and a particular effort has been made to grasp drivers of mortality.
Data from the tags present that unlawful persecution is the largest menace for young Eastern Imperial Eagles hatched in Austria, however collisions with infrastructure are additionally widespread.
Austria’s imperial eagles breed in floodplain forests and within the dry hills within the Weinviertel area, in addition to in open farmland. However, birds nesting in agricultural landscapes see decrease breeding success attributable to disturbance. Hares, floor squirrels, hamsters and birds similar to pigeons and larks are key meals objects.
BirdLife Austria fieldwork additionally revealed an occasion of a pair of Eastern Imperial Eagles taking on a Common Buzzard nest and ‘adopting’ the buzzards’ chick when it hatched.
Since 1999, Eastern Imperial Eagle has unfold 85 km west inside Austria and even reached the Danube. The majority of the Austrian inhabitants exists within the province of Lower Austria, which solely noticed eagles colonise in 2008.
With unlawful persecution nonetheless a severe challenge, BirdLife Austria has ramped up efforts to sort out crime towards the protected hen via the PannonEagle LIFE, a venture bringing collectively neighbouring international locations to safe the way forward for the eagle within the area.
