Valentine’s day for Lanner falcons

If February represents Valentine’s month for lovers, the Life LANNER project also takes on a touch of romance! It is precisely between the end of January and the beginning of February that courtship begins among the lanner falcons that form pairs housed in the structures of the Lago di Vico Nature Reserve.

By the end of the year, the aviaries undergo thorough maintenance with careful cleaning in every part: all perches and the food shelf are checked, the nest floor is replaced with new material, and the cameras are overhauled to avoid any unforeseen issues that might disturb the delicate mating period.

Each individual is examined with specialist visits, their beaks and claws are trimmed and filed, and some feathers around the cloaca are cut to increase the success of fertilisation.

The feeding plan is also modified to favour courtship, providing food more suited to reproduction several times a day.

Each season, the composition of the pairs may vary, either due to behavioural evaluations between partners studied in previous years or due to unforeseen events such as the loss of some individuals. For example, in 2024 we lost Tempesta, the oldest female at the centre, who last year, despite not having fertile eggs due to her advanced age, was an excellent surrogate mother, impeccably raising chicks from other pairs! Her partner, Atlante, who is also very old, is already courting the new female we found for him. It is important to highlight how complex captive breeding is and how essential it is to carefully select the specimens to be placed in the same aviary! In fact, even if Atlante is not able to fertilise his new female, who has never reproduced before, it would still be a success if she laid eggs thanks to the stimulation by an experienced male, thus becoming a good breeder in the future.

This is just one of the many management examples on which the project operators have focused recently, reaching a reproductive stock of as many as 7 pairs of lanner falcons, thanks also to the collaboration of breeders and bird of prey holders.

We particularly thank Gherardo Brami and Angelo Emilio Bergamotti, who last December 2024 entrusted our centre with some of their specimens to increase and improve the existing reproductive stock with the aim of increasing the number of births in the coming years!

We can only wait and hope for a bit of good luck!