Read more about the article Fall with thousands of Red-footed Falcons
[:Hu] Kék vércsék gyülekeznek egy éjszakázóhely közelében[:][:RO] Vânturei de seară adunându-se în apropierea locului de înnoptare[:][:en]Red-footed Falcons gather for the night[:]

Fall with thousands of Red-footed Falcons

Although it may seem fairy-tale at first hearing, the gathering of falcons is an existing natural phenomenon during autumn. We have been following it for 13 years in the western…

Continue ReadingFall with thousands of Red-footed Falcons

Management plans for a better conservation of the Red-footed Falcon!

kekvercse-nagy Three Natura 2000 sites (Valea Alceului, Lunca Barcăului from Bihor County and Cânepiști from Cluj County), which are in the custody of the Milvus Group, are among the first protected areas in Romania to have management plans approved by the Ministry of Environment. The main goals of these plans are related to nature conservation and the implementation of certain conservation measures.  The plans can be consulted here (in Romanian only). (more…)

Continue ReadingManagement plans for a better conservation of the Red-footed Falcon!

Red-footed Falcon conservation measures: counting roosting sites, tagging birds with satellite transmitters

IMG_3665Following their long summer preparing, Red-footed Falcons start their migration in early autumn. On their way to south they roost in flocks of varying numbers (from a few individuals to even more than a thousand) on groups of trees. As they are faithful to their roosting sites, they arrive to these places each autumn. Milvus Group has been conducting Red-footed Falcon counts on roosting sites for several years now. Every week from mid-August until the first week of October synchronous observations are made in the Romanian, Hungarian and Serbian Red-footed Falcon roosting sites. Similarly to past years, this year observations have been made in 6 sites in western Romania (here we would like to thank all those helping us in these observations!). (more…)

Continue ReadingRed-footed Falcon conservation measures: counting roosting sites, tagging birds with satellite transmitters

Rescuing a Red-footed Falcon colony from disappearing

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Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus)
The Red-footed Falcon is our only migratory raptor species which breeds in colonies. Over the previous decades, Red-footed Falcon populations across much of its European habitat range have suffered a decrease and, for this reason, it has become a priority species in the European Union. Red-footed Falcons are unable to make their own nest, instead occupying rooks nests. As such, the destiny of Red-footed Falcon’s population is strictly related to the conservation status of Rook. (more…)

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Counting of Red-footed Falcons at their roosting places in Western Romania

Roosting site in Arad County

The Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus) is one of the main target species of the Milvus Group’s raptor conservation activities. We had several projects focusing on the protection of this small size falcon, the international LIFE program being one of them. Within this project we began to monitor the autumn roosting of Red-footed Falcons. This species breeds in colonies and it’s gregarious during migration as well. They form night roosts from the end of August to the end of September/first days of October, and several hundreds of birds (sometimes above one thousand) can gather at one single roosting site. These places are usually small tree patches or roadside trees. (more…)

Continue ReadingCounting of Red-footed Falcons at their roosting places in Western Romania

Spring maintenance works made on nestboxes for Red-footed Falcons

[singlepic id=601 w=250 h=200 float=left]Although the Hungarian-Romanian Red-footed Falcon LIFE project has ended in 2009, the Milvus Group has assumed to manage the so-called After LIFE activities (those are required to be continued after the end of the project). One of these activities is the maintenance of the artificial nests mounted within the LIFE project for the Red-footed Falcons. It’s a well-known fact that falcon species don’t build the nest of their own, instead raise their chicks in other birds’ nests. In our region the “Red-foots” choose mainly the nests of rooks, as they breed colonially as well. In the recent years we’ve established brand new colonies by putting artificial nests on trees in those areas where rookeries lack. (more…)

Continue ReadingSpring maintenance works made on nestboxes for Red-footed Falcons