Accidental visit of the Pallas’s Fish Eagle in Ukraine

The Pallas’s Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus) is a rare accidental species in Ukraine. By the present time only two registrations have been known. 29.05.1910 a female in the first plumage was shot in “Askania Nova” (Zubarovsky, 1977). The female at the age of about 1 year was hunted in the first decade of June 1964 in Poltava Region (Gavrilenko, 1967).

The Pallas's Fish Eagle on wingThe Pallas's Fish Eagle. Maximal resolutionA new visit was recorded by us on 27.04.2011 during an expedition to the Orel river floodplain, at the border of the regions of Dnipropetrovsk (vicinity of Hupalovka Village, Mahdalynivka District) and Poltava (vicinity of Nekhvoroshcha Village, Novi Sanzhary District). This area is crossed by the Dnieper-Donbass Canal. Going by car along the river channel, I saw a large raptor sitting on a tree in the distance. At first I tried to scrutinize a bird in the binoculars and immediately took notice of its brownish-rusty plumage colouration. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to take a photo of the sitting bird. My camera was in the rucksack and while I was taking it out and stopping the car, the bird flew off the tree and I could only pictured her in flight.

A.S.Nadtochiy, Kharkiv State University named after H.S.Skovoroda


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