The lesser spotted eagle searches from the air on long wings and catches small mammals and amphibians.
Its plumage is mostly earthy brown, and the long tips of its outer flight feathers look like fingers in flight.
Between 2004 and 2016, a German program raised 85 second-hatched Lesser Spotted Eagles for release; 50 came from Latvia, 940 kilometres from the species’ core breeding range. In 2009, satellite tracking compared 12 translocated juveniles, eight native juveniles, and nine native adults on their first autumn migration.
All tracked native adults used the eastern Mediterranean flyway, as did six of the eight native juveniles. Translocated juveniles left an average of six days earlier; five travelled south and died in the central Mediterranean. Four of 12 translocated juveniles reached Africa, compared with seven of eight native juveniles. The researchers linked route choice with departure timing and opportunities to encounter experienced eagles.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Translocated juveniles left an average of six days before native juveniles. Four of 12 reached Africa, compared with seven of eight native juveniles, linking departure timing with migration route in the tracked groups.