UBPRC – Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre

Specialist Meeting on the Conservation of the Saker Falcon

5-7 April, 2009 in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, was held the meeting to discuss the status and conservation of the Saker Falcon.

The meeting was hosted by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, EAD and International Wildlife Consultants Ltd., IWC (Great Britain).

The agenda included three main sections of issues. The first section reviewed current knowledge of the Saker range and numbers. The second considered problems of CITES, and the third raised problems of captive breeding of the bird in countries of Europe and GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council).

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Reports from all Saker Range Countries were presented. From Ukraine reported Vitaly Vetrov and Yury Milobog, members of the Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre. Their presentation told about distribution and numbers of this raptor in Ukraine and Moldova. Basing on results of researches from other European countries it has been concluded that Ukraine holds the biggest population of the Saker in European part of the range. Nowadays the species numbers in Ukraine are estimated up to 270-310 breeding pairs. Majority of the population concentrates in the steppe zone and nests on poles of power lines.

Among reports of other participants we would like to pay attention to the following ones.
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Migration of raptors in the vicinity of Kyiv in autumn 2008

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Observations of marked birds

There came a period of bird spring migration, and again we’re searching the sky for silhouettes of our favourites. Quite often we don’t guess that our observations might give an unexpected result. During last decades an individual marking of birds of prey by using colour rings, wing tags or ‘windows’ on wings is rather common-spread. […]

The third cycle of counts of BP in the alienated zone of CAPS

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Experience of Foundation of Raptor Conservation Centre

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The second cycle of counts of BP in the alienated zone of CAPS

CONTINUATION OF WINTER COUNTS OF LARGE BIRDS OF PREY IN THE ALIENATED ZONE OF CHORNOBYL ATOMIC POWER STATION (CAPS) The second cycle of counts of birds of prey in the alienated zone of Chornobyl Atomic Power Station (CAPS) was carried out from 20 to 22.01.2009. The length of automobile counts was about 380 km within […]

Counts of Birds of Prey in January 2009 in Cherkasy Region

During January 2009 three counts of birds of prey were carried out in agricultural landscapes of Cherkasy region. A motor-car was used for the counts; the total route length amounted to 178 km. The investigations covered: 2.01.09 – Zolotonosha and Chornobay districts; 17.01.09 – Cherkasy and Chygyryn districts. Weather conditions: snow cover was 10-15 cm […]

New Issue of Journal «Berkut» Published

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Present Status of Ukrainian Birds of Prey

In spite of great ornithologists’ interest, Ukrainian birds of prey still remain a poor studied group. Due to changes in distribution and numbers, status of many raptor species has changed in many regions and is actually unknown. As a consequence, the ornithologists often rely on data from former researches, which now don’t correspond to real […]

Counts and catching of birds of prey

14.01.2009 we visited the urban junkyard of Kyiv, located in Obukhov district near the village of Krenychi. There we carried out counts and catching of birds of prey. It was recorded a concentration of Corvidae (Jackdaw, Rook), about 3,000 individuals in a total. Apart from these species, the junkyard is a feeding place for the […]