After the identification of the first nesting Eastern imperial eagle pair by the Milvus Group ornithologists in 2016, this year we managed to locate a record number of 9 territories occupied by the species in the north-western part of Romania and counted 4 chicks, which successfully left the nest. 

In 2016 in the framework of the LIFE project “Securing prey sources for endangered Falco cherrug and Aquila heliaca population in the Carpathian basin” we managed to identify a pair of imperial eagles in Arad county. It was a historic moment, since the species had not been seen nesting in our country for the last 45 years. One of the chicks, named Bandi, has become the first imperial eagle in Romanian with a satellite transmitter.  We’ve told you about Bandi’s adventures over the years.  

In the next year tha same pare raised two chick, and yet again, one of the chicks, named Emese ended up being the second imperial eagle monitored by satellite.

Year after year, we have continued to search for new territories occupied by this species, which is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as a Vulnerable Species. If in previous years we found at most 3 occupied territories and only one successful nesting pair, this year all our expectations and hopes were exceeded. We found 9 Eastern imperial eagle territories in the Western Plains, there were 3 nesting pairs and 4 fledged chicks (at one nest we were unable to confirm that the chicks successfully left the nest).

The large number of pairs identified by us is due to the conservation programs carried out over the last two decades by our Hungarian neighbors, which have resulted in an increase in nesting pairs to more than 220 in Hungary alone. Although this is good news and gives us hope that the number of nesting pairs will gradually increase, we are concerned that our country does not have the suitable conditions for this growth to lead to a self-sustaining, stable population. One of the reasons is the lack of solitary trees or rows of old trees in areas undisturbed by people, and thus the habitat availability for this species is limited.  Another factor that threatens the species’ population in our country is the continuous presence of poisoning cases in the areas visited by eagles, a problem that has been brought to the attention of the competent authorities many times, but so far without success.