Black Kites in Central Italy

In Central Italy chicks of the Black Kite are close to fledgling. Here in the picture below an adult individual feeding the youngs in its nest. The picture was taken yestarday morning in the Natural Reserve of Decima Malafede close to Rome.

16705 raptors at the Strait of Messina

After a long time a new post to report the results of the observations that we carried out last spring on the continental side of the Strait of Messina. We counted 16705 individuals and 15 species of raptors from a single watchpoint between the 8th of April and the 20th of May. As expected most of them were Honey Buzzards. Next appointment in August when there will be held the new fieldwork together with our friends of Ornis Italica.

News from the Strait of Messina

A first heavy passage of Honey Buzzards was recorded yesterday at the Strait of Messina after some days of rain, fog and clouds. On the anniversary of the Liberation from fascism in Italy, several hundreds of Honey Buzzards have been observed moving toward north along the valleys of the Aspromonte mountain. Together with them many Marsh Harriers, Montagu's Harriers and some Booted Eagles, Hobbys and Kestrels. Unfortunately many individuals were shot by poachers in the evening when raptors went to roost and  passed low over the houses of the Calabrian villages. This was possible because of the lack of control by the Forestry rangers who have not yet started  the anti-poaching operations.

To read more (in italian) click here: Gea-press

New B.Sc. thesis!

Some days ago Sara Capotosti discussed her thesis in Informatics at the University La Sapienza of Rome. She developed a web portal in order to support the research related to raptor movements and their dissemination basing on MEDRAPTORS activity. The title of the thesis is: "RaptorMigration a web portal for the study and the observations of migrating raptors". We congratulate with her and we hope to launch a new MEDRAPTORS website realized thanks to her thesis next summer.

New project!

We started a new project together with the association Ornis Italica in order to investigate the migration of raptors at the Strait of Messina. The aim of this research is to collect data on the flight behaviour of migrating raptors. The fieldwork started at the beginning of April and will go on until the 20th of May. Also the autumn migration will be monitored between the 10th of August and the end of September. Up to now we monitored the passage of Marsh Harriers and Montagu's Harriers moving along the slope of the Aspromonte mountain on the continental side of the Strait.

If you are interested in this project write to us.

News from the Strait of Messina

At the Strait of Messina relevant numbers of Marsh Harriers are still moving toward North. Yesterday dozens of individuals have crossed the Strait together with Lesser Kestrels, Pallid Harriers and few individuals of some other species such as the Booted Eagle and the Hen Harrier.

Migrating Raptor Project

After ten years of the "Migrating Raptor Project" led by LIPU (BirdLife Italy), on which we collaborated during the fieldwork, now there are substantial news. First we are analyzing the data collected during the past years in relation to dominant wind patterns with the collaboration of Jost Von Hardenberg from the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of Tourin (CNR). Moreover a new fieldwork has been started with two main aims: the first is to collect systematic data on the early phase of migration over the central Mediterranean using three different areas: the Strait of Messina and the islands of Panarea and Ustica. The second project aims to investigate for the first time the migration at the Strait of Messina using simultaneusly two watchpoints along the ridge of the Peloritani mountains. Observations started on the 10th of March and up to now more than two thousand Marsh Harriers together with hundreds of Black Kites and other raptors have been observed. We are enthusiastic with this new projects as well to reinforce our collaboration with LIPU (BirdLife Italy).