Lanner falcon release soon: welcome to the new chick!

A difficult year for many bird species

The 2021 breeding season has been remarkable, in a negative way, for many species. Egg laying in many seabird colonies has been delayed, migration was shifted for both passerines and raptors. Our favourite raptors have struggled this year as well, threatening our goal of Lanner falcon release.

LIFE Lanner monitors a variety of Lanner couples, both directly and through the collaboration of third parties. Project coordinator Lake Vico Natural Reserve hosts 3 couples at their rescue centre: Ulisse and Penelope, Tempesta and Atlante, Gea and Uragano. Moreover, there are 7 couples at affiliated breeding centres around Italy. This year, a total of 3 eggs was laid.

The breeding centre “I Falchi”, managed by Franco Gaeti, deserves a special mention for the great attention and care they tirelessly dedicate to their Lanner falcons. Due to our collaboration we are familiar with their work, and we can guarantee their falcons are kept in perfect health and treated with the utmost respect.

Our reason for hope: a new chick to be released

One of the three eggs hatched and produced the wonderful chick you can see in the picture. Soon he will be released from our new hacking box, closely monitored via GPS while he slowly gets used to his life in the wilderness. Hopefully he will give us valuable information on the movement ecology of this little-known species during the first life stages. If you’re curious about what hacking is and how it works, read about it in our article. We will post all future updates here and on our social media. By the way, are you following us already? We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram!

Valuable progress on a sensitive raptor

The Lanner falcon is a sensitive species and wild birds have been reported to fail breeding due to anthropic disturbance, albeit small. Agricultural and forestry practices, and even the presence of hikers or wildlife photographers, have had a negative impact on nesting couples in the past. Inspired by the successful hacking project undertaken in Israel, we plan to mitigate this issue by releasing young Lanners that have been accustomed to humans. The young falcons growing in the hacking box will get used to human presence as a part of their natural habitat, and as a consequence will be less susceptible to it during their life in the wild. On top of this, LIFE Lanner aims to raise awareness in wildlife photographers, ornithologists and bird watchers to minimize disturbance.