New season – new hope

19.07.2014

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In July, we conduct regular monitoring of the Egyptian vultures in order to check some of the territories under question and identify the number of the chicks in the nests.

In Greece, the expedition of the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) in Epirus confirmed three occupied territories but unfortunately only by single birds.

In Bulgaria, the results so far give us hope for the species. During this month one more occupied territory in Eastern Rhodopes was confirmed. With this, the total number of occupied territories for 2014 is 26 (the same number as in 2013). From a total 23 pairs, 18 have chicks (stable number of successful pairs compared to 2013) and the minimal total number of chicks is 24 (two more than 2013). This year there is a high number of pairs with two chicks (six pairs) compared to the previous year (there were three pairs with two chicks in 2013). Good news is the presence of small group of floaters in the region of Byala Reka (three immatures, one subadult observed together with three adult birds).

We help the parents Egyptian vultures by supplementary feeding and securing the first flight of their fledglings. In 2014, three pairs in Greece and 13 pairs in Bulgaria are supplementary fed. With this conservation action we provide birds with regular food to increase their breeding success, and save food to minimize the chance of poison incidents.

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