Ecology

The Eleonora’s Falcon selects the Greek islands for nesting each year and grows its juveniles. It appears by April –returning from wintering areas in East Africa and particularly Madagaskari- with older people mating and nesting, forming loose colonies as early as May. However, because of low food availability on nesting areas, usually hunts over long distances during the day and only a few individuals return to the colonies at night. Thus, at the beginning of the breeding season Eleonora’s Falcons can be seen in mainland Greece and even in high mountains away from the coast because the islands that host breeding colonies cannot support them with food. In fact, mature individuals wandering in mainland Greece can be confused with other species of hawks.

The breeding season of Eleonora’s Falcon begins very late (July) compared with other migratory birds thus the species exploits the autumn migration of small birds to Africa. This way, is able to include in its diet many of the migratory birds that fly over the Mediterranean basin during the late summer and towards the south. For this reason, from August to mid-October no movement between the islands and the mainland are generally observed -with the exception of the days with no wind- as the mature birds and the chicks are fed with birds of the autumn migration wave.

This species basically nests in natural cavities of rocks found in small islands, cliffs in islets and larger islands, as well as in and inland rocks. In fact, it is considered to have constant use of nesting position and monogamous habits, but according to existing data, juveniles are dispersed the first years of their life. Thus, based on the literature, approximately 90% of young individuals, that are not reproduced in the first 2-3 years of their life are absent from their origin colony during the period from May to October but they are installed on this in the coming years.