After a long journey of more than 7,000 kilometres, they are back. The red-footed falcons arrived from their wintering sites to the only known nesting locality in Slovakia.
Experts from the Raptor Protection of Slovakia have been closely watching their arrival and they have been preparing the conditions, so that the falcons breed in the highest possible abundance. New nesting boxes, and also better foraging conditions (thanks to the fields with close-to-nature farming) are waiting for our most endangered falcon.
Falco vespertinus, the well-known falcon with red feet, once lived in dozens of sites in southwestern and southeastern Slovakia. “Nowadays, we know of only a single locality in Slovakia, where they have been nesting regularly. It is a special protection area near Bratislava. The species winter mainly in Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. They plan their arrival to the nesting sites for the time when there is already enough food here, which, apart from voles, comprises mainly insects, such as locusts and grasshoppers. More than 20 individuals have returned so far. Fantastic news is the return of an adult male falcon, which we ringed as a fledgling at the same locality. It will be 7 years this June!” states Roman Slobodník of the Raptor Protection of Slovakia.
“We’re doing everything we can for the falcons not to extinct in our territory. Thanks to the support of the European Union, currently within the LIFE Steppe on border project, we have been successful. While in 2012 not a single breeding pair was known, in 2022 there were 17 pairs nesting here. We believe that the year 2023 will be even better. These days, we have been focusing on the transformation of the landscape. It is because non-productive elements, such as balks or flowering fallows, which are vitally important mostly to various species of insects, are missing in the area. As a result, red-footed falcons don’t have enough foraging opportunities. We may see how colourful and varied can the landscape be just at the other side of the border, in Austria, where the crop rotation and small fields are preserved. That’s where the falcons went to look for the food, they now can find “at home”. Thanks to that, they can spare some energy, which they can use to care for their chicks.” informs Tomáš Veselovský from the LIFE Steppe on border team.
“In cooperation with other project partners, we have been working to reshape more than 112 hectares of monoculture fields into varied vegetation. In spring, the first plots were sown with a special mixture of plants, which will provide food for insects throughout the season. The nature here is finally getting the green light. In the so far sterile agricultural landscape, there are literally islands of life created. Apart from the red-footed falcons, the great bustards, which in Slovakia can be found only in this locality, and coveys of partridges also benefit from the appropriate management of the agricultural lands.” adds Veselovský.
In addition to the creation of foraging sites for falcons, the experts have hung tens of nesting boxes. “Falcons don’t build their own nests, therefore they occupy empty nests of corvids. When there is a lack of suitable nests, we help them by installing nest boxes. Red-footed falcons nest in colonies, thus it suits them when the nest boxes are close to one another. The beginning of the season looks promising. The first twenty individuals have already been observed last week in windbreaks, where they usually breed. Reports from Hungary are also optimistic. The ornithologists there have recorded a higher number of red-footed falcons than in the last years. Favourable conditions for breeding and suitable foraging biotopes give a good basis for the population of the red-footed falcon, after years of holding out or stagnating, to prosper at last.” concludes Slobodník.
Illustrative picture: Red-footed falcon (J. Chavko)
