One of the most spectacular sights of the early autumn plains is the nightly gathering of Red-footed Falcons.
These small falcons gather in groups of up to a thousand before migrating south. During the day, they hunt insects and field voles in small groups, and at night they meet again in isolated clusters of trees on the plains. We take advantage of this gathering behaviour, which typically peaks in the second half of September, to count the roosting birds.
On Wednesdays, the designated counting days, national park rangers and volunteers search for these locations throughout the Carpathian Basin, both within and beyond national borders. At sunset, everyone counts or estimates the number of Red-footed Falcons they have seen and sends their tally to the MME coordinator.
On September 17, more than 20,000 Red-footed Falcons spent the night at a total of 65 observation sites, from Bratislava through the Hungarian plains and the plains of Vojvodina all the way to Banat. Among these groups are birds equipped with transmitters, representing the project within these huge flocks (LIFE Steppe on Border – LIFE20 NAT/SK/001077).
It took biologists and conservationists from three countries to count these large flocks of falcons. Thousands of Red-footed Falcons spent the night together at most of the larger gathering places, but the gathering in Hortobágy stood out, where an unprecedented crowd of at least 5,000 birds spent the night in a single row of trees.
Péter Palatitz, Dr. – Leader, Red-footed Falcon Protection Workgroup, BirdLife Hungary (MME)
Photo: Jozef Chavko
