With me busy working Kiersten was out on her own today, keeping up to date with bird of prey activity above the village of Lanjaron. We’ve been monitoring a particularly productive spot for some time now and sure enough it wasn’t long before she was snapping photos again…
I have to say this shot is a bit of a challenge, and any assistance with an ID would be most welcome! One of the target species for this patch is the Bonelli’s Eagle. We have been lucky enough to find both adults and juveniles in the area recently, and there is definitely something “hawk-like” about this bird’s profile…but I would be the first to admit we haven’t given you a lot to work with. I would be looking for the tawny-orange chest of a youngster or the distinctive white chest and black wing bar of the adult, and hopefully a glimpse of a white patch between the shoulders just to be sure, but with little more than the silhouette to go with it’s a tough call!
In flight Bonelli’s Eagle can look quite big and powerful…and with broad, flat wings and the rather long, straight square-cut tail I’m fairly certain that it’s this species we have here for you today. If any of you have any ideas of your own, please get back to us via email, it would be great to have some other opinions.
With only around 600 pairs left in Europe our Bonelli’s Eagles are undoubtedly one of our local birdwatching highlights. Rest assured, we’ll continue to keep the updates coming in as the season gets underway, so keep checking the Tour Diaries for all the bird of prey news from the Alpujarras. As ever, we’ll keep you posted…
