The studies carried out by the team for the past years show that there are numerous cases when pairs that have occupied territories do not start breeding because of the lack of suitable trees. In most cases these are newly formed and inexperienced pairs. The artificial nests could provide support to these birds. The best period for placing artificial nests is the autumn/winter season in order to have suitable nesting conditions available at the time of territory occupation and the beginning of the breeding season.
The places for mounting artificial nests were selected as a result of the tracking of Imperial Eagles tagged with radio transmitters by Green Balkans in 2007. This was the first transmitter tagging of Imperial Eagles in Bulgaria and so far, this has been the longest study of the species through these modern technologies. These efforts resulted in the identification of several territories, where one, two, or more juvenile and non-breeding individuals of this rare species are recorded on a regular basis. In 2009, in the beginning of the breeding season, Green Balkans’ team put an artificial nest in such an area. A newly formed pair settled only 3,5 km away from the tree with the artificial nest. This points to the experts’ appropriate approach in the selection of suitable sites. Therefore, this methodology will be applied when placing more artificial nests in the future.
The activities for Imperial Eagle conservation are implemented within the project “Conservation measures for target species of the EU Birds Directive – Lesser Kestrel, Black Vulture, and Imperial Eagle in their main habitats in Bulgaria”.
The project is implemented by Green Balkans with the financial assistance of the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and the state budget of the Republic of Bulgaria through Environment OP 2007-2013 (ope.moew.government.bg), Axis 3 “Preservation and restoration of biodiversity”: project No 58301–60-480, Contract No 58301 – С – 008, procedure BG161PO005/08/3/01/05.
For further information, please contact:
Gradimir Gradev, “Imperial Eagle Conservation Activities” Coordinator
ggradev@greenbalkans.org
Pavlin Zhelev, Project Assistant
pzhelev@greenbalkans-wrbc.org