Roosting, a mass gathering in autumn is one of the typical behaviour of Red-footed Falcons all across the Carpathian Basin. The previous record was about 11,160 individuals in 43 locations, which was observed in 2014.
Based on the report of the Red-footed Falcon Conservation Workgroup of BirdLIFE Hungary (MME), the record was broken on September 18, 2024. Almost exactly ten years to the day, 11,751 roosting Red-footed Falcons were counted in 49 different places from the Bratislava plain through the Hungarian plains and foothills, across Banat all the way to Vojvodina.
During the day, from mid-August until the migration in September, small flocks of Red-footed Falcons can be observed in many places, sifting over a grain stubble and preying on the ants that swarm at this time, or on the multitude of locusts and field voles that multiply in the autumn, or preening themselves on the ground. These groups then huddle together for the night, so that even thousands of birds spend the night together in the little-disturbed groups of trees in the plains.
Red-footed falcons, ringed male in the foreground (photo: Attila Szilágyi)
In the monitoring coordinated by the MME’s Red-footed Falcon Conservation Workgroup (www.falcoproject.eu), nature conservation organisations in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia, as well as the hungarian national park directorates and volunteer observers and full-time specialists of the association, count the falcons on a weekly basis every autumn. Through 20 years of work by nearly 100 observers, we are beginning to learn more and more about the migratory behaviour of this exceptional species.
Red-footed falcons roosting site (fotó: Gergely József)
Arrival of Red-footed falcons at the roosting site (photo: Attila Szilágyi)
Within days, however, the intensive migration begins and the vast majority of the falcons leave our region to spend the winter in the southern part of Africa at the end of their 8,500 kilometre migration.
The FALCOPOLIS films shown at the Hungarian House of Music in Budapest give an insight into the secret world of the Red-footed Falcon roost sites in Africa.
The project entitled „LIFE Steppe on border - Long-term conservation of Great Bustard and Red-footed Falcon in border region of Hungary and Slovakia" (LIFE20 NAT/SK/001077) is co-funded by the European Union from the LIFE Programme. The project implementation is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary and Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic as co-financiers.
title photo: Attila Szilágyi
