We are starting a project to study and conserve the Red-Footed Falcon in Ereimentau

In May 2024, the BRCC team will launch a project to study the status of the Red-Footed Falcon population in and around Buiratau National Park in order to establish its current abundance and develop measures to restore it.

Кобчик (Falco vespertinus) — небольшой сокол размерами чуть меньше голубя, населяет степную и лесостепную зоны, в ландшафтах, где рощи и пойменные леса, чередуются с открытыми пространствами. Гнездится в разреженных колониях или отдельными парами, часто в старых гнёздах ворон, сорок, грачей.

The Red-Footed Falcon is listed as Vulnerable (VU) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The main threats to it in Kazakhstan are the lack of nesting sites, habitat destruction due to forest fires, pesticide use in agriculture and electrocution on 6-10 kV overhead power lines (OPLs), whose poles the birds often use as roosts.

Red-Footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus). Photo by N. Ongarbayev

The project includes a trip to the Ereimentau area, where 7 nesting sites were identified in 2007. In May, our team will re-survey these sites and search for new nesting sites and locations suitable for nesting of passerines. Up-to-date data on the numbers of Red-Footed Falcon will help us in the future to develop a scheme of artificial nesting sites to attract Pintail and fill the nest deficit.

The project is being carried out with funds from a small grant awarded by «The Ornithological Society of the Middle East» (OSME)

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Link to project page

Link to a page of the species