In Europe, 38 species of birds of prey live during the day and practically all migrants, at least somewhere in their European distribution area. Some of these migrations are short distance, but others need movements of thousands of kilometers. This Journeys include enormous energy consumption by birds, and they are a challenge for their survival.
To minimize energy consumption, the largest daily raptors migrate during the day with the help of a removal method, followed by planning. To do this, they benefit from the rising air flows that occur when the sun heats the earth’s surface. The fact that these currents do not take place at sea, Largely the migration routes of these birds And other planners such as storks.
That’s why in Europe, Most important concentrations of migrating birds of prey occur at both ends of the Mediterranean Sea. On the East End, in Türkiye and Israel and on the western side, in the Strait of Gibraltar, where only 14 km of Europe separate from Africa.
Raptors’s long journey
Migration is a phenomenon in which a large number of species and in many cases are spectacular. Although the swallows, overcome or storks belong to those who enjoy the greatest popular recognitionThere are others, such as small and large birds of prey, who perform remarkable confusion. At the moment, hundreds of thousands are the copies that flutter or make plans for our wide -wide bodies in search of their breeding settlements.
Among them is the ‘wise vulture’. This is what Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente called the smallest of the Iberian vultures and unique completely migrating: The ordinary Alimoche. This Rapaz, with a somewhat “eccentric” look, endangered in the “vulnerable” categoryWest -Africa is going to spend the winter, and there are young people from their first years of life before they return to reproduce on the Iberian Peninsula. From that moment they will repeat this immigration route in the rest of their lives.
It is one of the first birds for which the use of tools, in this case of stones to break ostriches, was described in his winter barracks, an inherited and non -learned behavior. Populations are sitting in the Canary and Balarian Archipelagos, In adaptation to a relatively more stable environment and the risk of crossing large open sea surfaces.
Another Rapaz, this time, one of the smallest in Europe, He has also returned from forest areas of West -Africa, from Mauritania to Sierra Leone, the European Autillo. This small “Duende del Bosque” can occupy urban parks and gardens, so although the observation is quite difficult, it is one of the nocturnal birds of prey closest to humans.
Immediately Efficient camouflage, the simple and taught number is heard on the warm summer evenings. It is a great consumer of insects who, like so many other species that they consume, are also considered ‘vulnerable’.
Among the medium and small Raptors are also two of the most unknown hawk species: Alcotán and Care. The first “in danger”- returns to the forests of the center of the Iberian peninsula in the spring from Africa, the Sahara, while Esmerejón is leaving our steppe countries, right nowLooking for other more benevolent latitudes to reproduce. Behind the reduction that can be seen in Alcotan -populations worldwide is the unfavorable management of both agricultural and forestry habitats.
Better known for their Anthropophile customs are the CorericWhere sleeping people are who organize tens of thousands of cousins, to Spanish villages and towns to reproduce. And in turn return from the Sahel de Ashes Aguiluchos to settle in the large European agricultural and pascicultural surfaces.
In the breakfast plains they find a growing threat in the intensification of agriculture, the Earlier harvest of various crop varieties or mowing in greenSo volunteers from SEO/Birdlife carry out rescue actions that considerably increase the reproductive success of this bird of prey as ‘vulnerable’.
Eagles, Milanos and Abejeros
Under the The black Milano is probably better known and visible speciesThat, because of its Gregarious behavior and its habit of approaching roads and landfills, it is very easy to observe. At the moment he returns from Sub -Saharan Africa. C
As for its congenere, The Royal Milano ̶ in danger ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶And does not show large journeys, but at the moment it is farewell to the important winter population that, from Central and Eastern Europe, has passed the cold station here.
He Eagle Calzada, a forest gate, also crosses the Strait of GibraltarTogether with hundreds of thousands of birds of prey based on medium -sized those of the mentioned. In the same range of sizes, one of the most spectacular eagles and possibly less known to the general public is. This is the European Culebrera, another large migraine that returns from his winter barracks in the Sahel to reproduce in Spain.
For his part, European beer crosses our air for tens of thousands of the less dry strip that goes from Senegal to Nigeria towards the rest of Europe. They remain quite unnoticed, and in the north of Spain a population of this bird of prey is maintained that, as the name suggests, considerably feeds with insects.
These five species are in a situation of stability or slight population rise, Including the Royal Milano, after decades of decadesSeems to give signs of recovery.