Wednesday, 7 April 2021
29-3-2021 BIOPARC, VALENCIA - ABDIM'S STORK (Ciconia abdimii)
Abdim's stork is found widely in open habitats throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, from the Sahel to South Africa, being absent mainly from forests, dense woodlands and deserts. A smaller populations occurs in Yemen. It breeds colonially in trees, on cliffs or rooftops in the northern half of its range (north of the Equator) during the wet season from May to August, migrating to eastern and southern Africa for the remainder of the year. This stork has escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, U.S., but there is no evidence that the population is breeding and may only persist due to continuing releases or escapes.
Widespread and common throughout its large range, Abdim's stork is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is the subject of several nationally coordinated breeding programs: in the United States, the plan for this species is administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and in Europe by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
The Abdim's stork is mostly insectivorous, feeding on locusts, caterpillars and other large insects, although these birds will also eat small reptiles, amphibians, mice, crabs and eggs] The female lays two to three eggs and is slightly smaller than the male.
Tuesday, 6 April 2021
5-4-2021 ALCOY, ALICANTE - BONELLI'S EAGLE (Aquila fasciata)
The Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata) is a large bird of prey. The common name of the bird commemorates the Italian ornithologist and collector Franco Andrea Bonelli. Bonelli is credited with gathering the type specimen, most likely from an exploration of Sardinia. Some antiquated texts also refer to this species as the crestless hawk-eagle. Like all eagles, Bonelli's eagle belongs to the family Accipitridae. Its feathered legs marked it as member of the Aquilinae or booted eagle subfamily.Europe, Africa on the montane perimeter of the Sahara Desert and across the Indian Subcontinent to Indonesia. In Eurasia, this species may be found as far west as Portugal and as far east as southeastern China and Thailand. It is usually a resident breeder. The Bonelli's eagle is often found in hilly or mountainous habitats, with rocky walls or crags, from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Habitats are often open to wooded land and can occur in arid to semi-moist climate. This eagle, though it can be considered partially opportunistic, is something of a specialist predator of certain birds and mammals, especially rabbits, galliforms and pigeons. On evidence, when staple prey populations decline or are locally scarce, Bonelli's eagle switch to being an opportunistic predator of a wide variety of birds. Despite its persistence over a large range and its continued classification as a least concern species by the IUCN, the Bonelli's eagle has declined precipitously in various parts of its range, including almost all of its European distribution, and may face potential local extinction. The species' declines are due to widespread habitat destruction, electrocution from electricity pylons as well as persistent persecution.
Monday, 5 April 2021
5-4-2021 ALCOY, ALICANTE - BONELLI'S EAGLE (Aquila fasciata)
Typically rugged environment with mixed vegetation that the Bonelli's eagle is often at home in. Here in Andalusia's Sierra de las Nieves.
Bonelli's eagle have a spotty and sparse worldwide distribution currently. The species is distributed in northwestern Africa from the Anti-Atlas in Morocco northeasterly through the lower parts of the Atlas mountains in northern Algeria and northern Tunisia (and probably formerly northern Libya). Beyond its African breeding range, the IUCN and others have mapped out a semi-regular wintering range for Bonelli's eagles, in coastal west Africa from southern Morocco down through Western Sahara, Mauritania and northwestern Senegal (rarely also east to Mali), although little more is reportedly known about this population and its origins and altogether the species is considered largely non-migratory. Additionally, the species has been recorded as a vagrant in east Africa in Somalia as well. In southern Europe, they range patchily through different parts of Portugal and Spain into southern France as far north as the department of Drôme. Discontinuously, they are now seemingly solely left as breeding bird in Italy on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. In southeastern Europe, an isolated population possibly persists in Croatia as well as in northern and southern Macedonia (with the further possibility of spilling over into Kosovo) and spottily through different areas of Greece (possibly spilling over the borders in the west in Albania and in the east in Bulgaria), as well as Crete. Out of Europe, they may be found in western and southern Turkey, Syria (possibly but most likely extirpated), the isle of Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, western Jordan, northeastern Egypt (rarely in northern half of Sinai Peninsula) possibly but not certainly in spots in the west and south of Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Elsewhere in the Middle East, their range includes eastern Iraq and west, south and northeastern Iran, extending somewhat into Turkmenistan in the Kopet Dag range.
Further east into Asia, their distribution includes eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan through most of the Indian subcontinent, where generally it is uncommon but more locally common near Nepal. On the other hand, they are absent in eastern India and only occurring as a vagrant to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In India, they are most regularly occur in certain area such as Chambal ravines, Ranthambore National Park, Chir zone of lower Kumaun Himalayas and in winter in the Keoladeo National Park of Bharatpur, Rajasthan. From central Myanmar they range across into northwestern Thailand and northern Laos (though possibly only as a visitor rather than breeding in the latter two). In southern China their resident range includes Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong north to Yangtze river as well as rarely into Hong Kong. Their isolated Indonesian population ranges is in the Lesser Sunda Islands, including at least Sumbawa, Timor, Wetar, Luang and Flores, however records show they've turned up on as many as 20 islands in the Lesser Sundas.
Bonelli's eagles are mostly residential throughout their range but juvenile can disperse up to over several hundred kilometers. Sometimes, they are recorded at migration sites and at spots where not known to breed in winter. Wanderings include around 700 km (430 mi) north of their regular range in France near the coast of English Channel, far from their normal haunts in Regensburg, Germany and, probably both from the Italian island populations, to northwestern Italy and Slovenia. From their Iberian peninsula range presumably, vagrants have been reported in the Canary islands. Beyond Sri Lanka, other areas the species has been known to vagrate (or perhaps rarely winter) in Asia have included Kazakhstan, the Korean peninsula, Malaysia and Cochinchina in Vietnam, as well as a record in winter 1996 on the isle of Yamdena, the latter presumably from the Lesser Sunda population.
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