{"id":493,"date":"2026-10-09T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/?p=493"},"modified":"2026-10-09T20:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:54:00","slug":"migration-of-greater-spotted-eagles-from-polesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/2026\/10\/09\/migration-of-greater-spotted-eagles-from-polesia\/","title":{"rendered":"Migration of Greater Spotted Eagles from Polesia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a report published by the Ukrainian Bird of Prey Research Centre<\/a>, authors A. Simon, O. Panchuk, S. Domashevsky and Y. Badyga described the migration of three Greater Spotted Eagles equipped with telemetry transmitters<\/a> thanks to the ECOTONE TELEMETRY GRANT 2018<\/a>. During the 2019 breeding season, three birds were equipped with transmitters: two from the Borodianka district in the Kyiv region and one from the Ivankiv district in the Kyiv region. The birds from the Borodianka district were from the same nest: an adult bird \u2014 most likely a male \u2014 named Steve (transmitter ID UKR01), and his chick, named Alex (transmitter ID UKR03). The bird from the Ivankiv district, named Serg, was fitted with a transmitter bearing the ID UKR02. The corresponding transmitter codes are also displayed on the bird movement maps available on the Ukrainian Bird of Prey Research Centre\u2019s website<\/a>.
The first bird to migrate south in 2019 was Alex; this took place on the 20th September. The migration route passed through the following countries: Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Sudan. On the 23rd October, Alex paused his migration, remaining in one location until the 13th November; he then made a series of southward flights over the next 24 days, stopping periodically for a few days at specific sites before reaching his final wintering ground on the 6th December. During these flights, the bird briefly ventured into Ethiopia. The southernmost point of his route was at latitude 11\u00b0 17′ N. He began his spring migration on the 5th April 2020, following the same route but flying only as far as Eritrea and Jordan, bypassing Lebanon and Greece. On the return journey, he kept closer to the coast. In Turkey, rather than taking the easiest diagonal route, he headed south over the Black Sea and then turned west to skirt around it. In Moldova, Alex shifted his migration path from a northerly direction to the northeast and east.
Alex\u2019s father, Steve, was the second to begin migrating, setting off on the 21st September \u2014 the day after his offspring had departed. His migration route took him through Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, parts of South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, finally reaching Tanzania on the 9th November. Unlike his offspring, it is difficult to determine whether Steve remained in a single location for the winter; instead, he appeared to lead a somewhat nomadic existence within a specific area. On the 1st March, the bird began its northward migration but paused a few days later, remaining in the vicinity of Nayiaeruru (Kenya) until the 22nd March; it then headed north, making occasional stops of one or two days. The bird did not reach its breeding territory in the Kyiv region until the evening of the 25th April \u2014 a full month and a day later than in 2018. Consequently, the outlook for the breeding season and successful reproduction was not promising.
Serg was the last Greater Spotted Eagle observed beginning its migration; this occurred on 28th September. Like the other two birds, Serg\u2019s migration route took it through Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Sudan. The final signal from the bird was received on he 4th November, and no further data has been obtained since. There are, therefore, two possibilities: either the bird died, or the transmitter malfunctioned. Plans were made to conduct research and observations during the 2020 season in the area where the bird most frequently appeared in 2019, in the hope of potentially locating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more detailed analysis of Steve’s migration route made it possible to examine the characteristics of the bird’s migration. Between the 21st September and the 9th November, the maximum daily distance covered was 371 km, while the minimum was 45 km (excluding days when the golden eagle did not migrate and remained in one place); the average daily movement was 170 km, and the total distance traveled was just over 8,000 km (compared to 6,500 km as the crow flies). To characterize the movement, a route deviation angle [\u02da] was introduced; this is determined using a right-angled triangle where one leg represents the distance between the start and end points of the daily journey, and the sum of the other leg and the hypotenuse equals the total distance covered by the bird that day. The route deviation angle is the angle between the hypotenuse and the leg corresponding to the distance between the start and end points of the daily journey. The smaller the route deviation angle, the less the bird’s daily flight path deviated from a straight line and the more purposeful the movement was. An angle close to 90\u02da indicates that the bird remained in one location and did not migrate on that day. The relevant data are presented in the chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a report published by the Ukrainian Bird of Prey Research Centre, authors A. Simon, O. Panchuk, S. Domashevsky and Y. Badyga described the migration of three Greater Spotted Eagles equipped with telemetry transmitters thanks to the ECOTONE TELEMETRY GRANT 2018. During the 2019 breeding season, three birds were equipped with transmitters: two from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,78,10,25,42,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparrow.up.poznan.pl\/life\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}