This year, Members of Milvus Group continued to verify the Lesser Spotted Eagle nests, the breeding success and the threatening factors in the breeding season and ringing the chicks in the two Natura 2000 sites. The activity is part of “LIFE08 NAT/RO/000501 project – Conservation of the Lesser Spotted Eagle in Romania – other conservation activities were also implemented. On the 22th of July, during synchronic raptor observations on the Dealurile Târnavelor and Valea Nirajului Natura 2000 sites, we identified more Lesser Spotted Eagle territories and the approximate location of their nests.

On the following day we verified the territories, searched the nests of eagles and ringed the chicks. In a forest near Vidacut (Harghita county), we made an extremely surprising find – a nest with two Lesser Spotted Eagle chicks! This phenomenon is very rare for this species because of the bird’s habit of “cainism” – when the older chick kills its younger sibling. Continuing our activities, on the next day in the same protected area, near Gălățeni (Mureș county) we found another nest with two Lesser Spotted Eagle chicks. In literature there are very few similar examples, when both chicks survive in the nest, and in Romania it`s the first time this phenomenon has ever been observed.