Page 86 - Panuccio2012

Short paper

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Fig. 1. The study area. A and B: watchpoints on the Calabrian Apennines used in this study. CV: watchpoint on
the Calabrian Apennines used during surveys in 1990s. SM: Strait of Messina. M: Marettimo. MC: Mount Colegno.
Grey area: approximate breeding range of Short-toed Eagles Circaetus gallicus in central Italy. Solid arrow: flyway
hypothesised for juveniles in this study. Dashed arrow: flyway of adults en-route to the Strait of Gibraltar. Dotted
arrow: alternative pathway of juveniles through the Tyrrhenian Sea, previously suggested by Agostini et al. (2004b).

recorded, in 16 flocks (of 2–49 birds, mean 12.2) These results suggest that most of the Short-
plus seven single birds. Three flocks, of 2, 42 and toed Eagles using the Central Mediterranean
39 birds, left the island heading towards North flyway in autumn are juveniles. Most adults use
Africa and one individual was seen to return the Tyrrhenian coast flyway (as above),
towards Sicily. For the remaining birds it was not although some juveniles follow older birds
possible to establish the direction of departure. along this route, in late September. However,
In 2007, 170 Short-toed Eagles were recorded, in many juveniles migrate later in the autumn,
17 flocks (of 2–35 birds, mean 9.1) plus 16 single probably following the coast rather than the
birds. Of these, flocks of three and 12 continued inland mountain chain (fig. 1) and migrating
towards the Tunisian coast; flocks of 24 and singly or in small, loose flocks, thus making
four, plus two single birds remained on the monitoring difficult from observation posts
island; two flocks, of 19 and 16 birds, flew back along the Calabrian Apennines. It has been sug-
towards Sicily; and the direction of departure of gested that juveniles follow an innate north-
the others was not recorded. Of the total of 372 east–southwest direction in autumn, leading
individuals noted in these two years, it was them directly to western Sicily from breeding
possible to establish the age of 112: 89 (79%) areas in north-central Italy, across the
were juveniles, 17 (15%) were immatures, and Tyrrhenian Sea. The hesitation shown by Short-
six (5%) were adults. In addition, during toed Eagles at Marettimo when facing the open
2nd–15th October 2007, a total of eight sea suggests that this is unlikely, however. Flocks
migrating Short-toed Eagles, all travelling singly, over Marettimo probably build up as the birds
was counted along the Calabrian Apennines, a wait for favourable weather conditions in
migration bottleneck in southern continental western Sicily. After crossing the Strait of
Italy (fig. 1). Of these, six were aged: five were Messina and reaching the south coast of Sicily,
juveniles and one was an adult. Previous surveys juvenile Honey-buzzards make the 400-km sea
in the area in the 1990s confirmed that this crossing to Libya via Malta (Agostini et al.
species is an uncommon migrant (Agostini & 2002c, 2004a), but Short-toed Eagles appear
Logozzo 1997). more likely to follow the coast to western Sicily,

British Birds 102 • September 2009 • 506–508 507