After the iconic species of the European lowlands and the king of steppes – the great bustard, the rare red-footed falcon prospers in Slovakia too. Although a decade ago there was not a single pair nesting in Slovakia, during the last summer the environmentalists counted 20 pairs and 46 chicks.
This is the third most successful season in almost 20 years of monitoring. For the population of the most colourful raptor in Slovakia to be increasing, the availability of prey, favourable weather, and also the measures of the state nature conservationists and civic activists are contributing.
The mission of the country is to increase the efforts in protection of the Slovak nature and also endangered species, which support maintaining the species variability and functioning of natural ecosystems. To reconcile the interests of nature conservation and local residents, to set pragmatic rules of support provision for farmers and to implement the measures contained in the programmes of care for the special protection areas is just as important.
The new Programme of red-footed falcon’s conservation for the period from 2024 until 2028, which was approved a couple of days ago, will also improve the conditions of breeding population. “The key aspect of the conservation will be ensuring and maintaining suitable topic and trophic conditions in the nesting sites for the support of the continuity of breeding. We believe that by implementing the measures we will manage to preserve the breeding population of this handsome raptor and to keep it as a crown jewel and a part of the Slovak autochtonic fauna,” explained Andrea Lešová, a zoologist of the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic.
The Sysľovské polia Special Protection Area, where the environmentalists counted 18 pairs lately, was the only and habitual breeding site of the falcon in Slovakia for a long-time. This year, a new locality was added to the list – the Úľanská mokraď Special Protection Area near Trnava, where two pairs had been observed. “This positive result of monitoring came thanks to the favourable weather and availability of prey, mainly voles and various insects over the whole season. Therefore the falcons could raise their chicks without problems,” added Roman Slobodník from the Raptor Protection of Slovakia.
Measures implemented within the international LIFE STEPPE ON BORDER project – “Long-term conservation of Great Bustard and Red-footed Falcon in the border region of Hungary and Slovakia” help to stabilise the falcon’s population as well. These measures are financially supported by the European Union under the terms of the LIFE programme. Their primary aim is to transform the intensively used agricultural land into permanent grasslands and to reduce the use of pesticides and other chemicals, resulting in the increase of the availability of prey, and the natural breeding conditions.
The iconic bird from the Falco genus, known for its “orange-red legs” and thus called the red-footed falcon, belongs to the unmistakable species. It is a migratory bird, which, year after year, faces a difficult migration to its wintering sites in Africa, which are approximately 9,000 kilometres distant as the crow flies. It is a species typically inhabiting steppes.
The abundance of its population fluctuates depending on the availability of prey. As far as the biological factors having an impact on the productivity of breeding pairs are concerned, there are indications that viral diseases, zoonoses or predation may be the limiting ones.
In the conditions of Slovakia, it inhabits mostly the lowland mosaic agricultural landscape with the character of a steppe. Its forage is composed not only by insects, but mainly by voles and mice that cause considerable financial damages to the farmers’ harvest.
