Crete’s first ringed Bonelli’s Eagles ready to leave nest
This year’s first ringed Bonelli’s Eagle chicks are almost ready to leave their nest. New adventures lie ahead of them!
In May 15th, 2020, the two eaglets were ringed, measured morphometrically, and tagged with satellite transmitters in eastern Asterousia Mountains, southern Crete, by the LIFE Bonelli eastMed team. Valuable help was provided by a professional climber assisted by volunteer climbers.
The nest was systematically monitored by the Natural History Museum of Crete (University of Crete) fieldworking team during the last four months, in order to confirm the reproductive success of the specific Bonelli’s Eagle couple, which had nested successfully in the same area during 2019.
In Crete, the species nests in vertical rocky cliffs, preferably in isolated gorges. This makes nest tracking and monitoring difficult; and even more difficult is the access and the chicks’ capture in order to be marked.
For these reasons, cooperation with experienced climbers is needed. Besides the eaglets’ attentive capture and transportation and their subsequent repositioning back to the nest, the climbers also collect biological material from it (for example, feathers, eggshells, pellets etc).
The two juvenile male eagles were given the names Elpenor and Laertes –and we impatiently await to monitor their long flights!
