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Thursday, 25 April 2013 13:26

This week have appeared some migrating Booted Eagles (Hieraaetus pennatus) in different areas of the Basque coast. One of those specimens that where in passage in Urdaibai hunted a Magpie in front of the Urdaibai Bird Center. This small bird of prey belong to Eagle's genus, being the smallest in Europe.

A Booted Eagle defending its prey facing Magpies.

Their skills and power in its flights become it in one of the few predators, together with Peregrine Falcon, that have the corvids (specially Magpies and Carrion Crow) in Urdaibai, helping in this way in the balance of their population. The lack of those and other similar birds of prey in our surroundings, encourages the growth of the population of corvids which, without natural predators, can grow excessively. These pictures show the moment after the Magpie predation and the difficulties they have to feed on their prey, as Magpies and Carrion Crows, with a strong gregarious feeling disturb as possible to the small eagle so it can't feed in calm.

Eating its prey

Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus) is a migratory bird that spends the winter in Africa and during the spring goes to mid-latitudes of Western Paleartic, where it breeds. It prefers mountainous habitats where are mix forests to nest. In the breeding season it extends discontinuously in the Maghreb, Turkey, Western Russia, the Balkans and Slavic countries above all; being the Iberian Peninsula one of the most important area to breed in Western Paleartic.

 
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