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European Species Action Plan for the Red-Footed Falcon Falco Vespertinus Linnaeus, 1766

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European Species Action Plan for the Red-Footed Falcon Falco Vespertinus Linnaeus, 1766 European Species Action Plan for the Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus Linnaeus, 1766 Prepared by: on behalf of the European Commission 1 European Species Action Plan for the Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus The present action plan was commissioned by the European Commission and prepared by BirdLife International as subcontractor to the “N2K Group” in the frame of Service Contract N#070307/2007/488316/SER/B2 “Technical and scientific support in relation to the implementation of the 92/43 ‘Habitats’ and 79/409 ‘Birds’ Directives”. Compilers Péter Palatitz, MME/BirdLife Hungary Péter Fehérvári, MME/BirdLife Hungary Szabolcs Solt, MME/BirdLife Hungary Boris Barov, BirdLife International List of Contributors Austria M. Dvorak*, H.-M. Berg* Belarus Vladimir Dombrovski* Bosnia & Herzegovina Dražen Kotrošan* Bulgaria Svilen Cheshmedjiev, Stoycho Stoychev, Emil Todorov, Croatia Davor Cikovic* Cyprus Michael Miltiadou* Czech Republic Karel Stastny* Finland Teemu Lehtiniemi*, Juha Tiainen* Germany Peter H. Barthel*, Dietrich Ristow Greece Thanos Kastritis* Hungary János Bagyura, Péter Bánfi, Péter Borbáth, Károly Erdélyi, Ádám Ezer, Péter Fehérvári, Anikó Gál, Gergő Halmos, Zoltán Hegyi, Éva Horváth, Anita Kiss, László Kotymán, András Kovács, Péter Palatitz, Csaba Pigniczki, Szabolcs Solt, Gábor Tihanyi Israel Dr. Reuven Yosef Italy Claudio Celada, Marco Gustin, Enrico Ottolini, Mario Pedrelli* Kazakhstan Evgeny Bragin Latvia Viesturs Kerus* Liechtenstein Georg Willi* Lithuania L.Raudonikis* Luxembourg Biver Gilles*, Lorgé Patric* Malta Andre Raine* Montenegro Darko Saveljić* Romania Szilárd Daróczi, Attila Nagy, Eugen Petrescu, Attila Sándor* Serbia Attila Ágoston, Jenő Purger* Slovakia Boris Maderič*, Jozef Chavko* and Jozef Lengyel* Switzerland Hans Schmid* Turkey Özge Balkız*, Arzu Gürsoy* Ukraine Olga Yaremchenko*, Oleg Dudkin*, Mykola Kostenko* United Kingdom Nick P. Williams * experts who were not able to attend the SAP workshop 2 Milestones in the Production of the Plan Draft 1.0 sent to all Contributors and published online: 1 September, 2009 Workshop: 9-12 Sept, 2009, Szarvas, Hungary Draft 1.1 : 2 November 2009 Draft 2.0: 30 January 2010 for consultations with Member States Final version: 31 March 2010 Reviews This Species Action Plan should be reviewed and updated every ten years (first review in 2019). An emergency review will be undertaken if there is a sudden major change liable to affect one of the populations or subspecies. Photo Credits: Csaba Lóki (front-cover) Recommended Citation Palatitz, P., P. Fehérvári, S. Solt and B. Barov (2009) European Species Action Plan for the Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus. 49 p. ISSN (…) 3 Geographical scope of the action plan This action plan covers the range states of the Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus in Europe (range states are listed in Table 1) as far as possible due to the very limited information available from Russia. It needs to be implemented in the range states in the European Union, Ukraine, Serbia and the Balkans. Given the significance of the non-breeding season information from the non-breeding range was collected as far as possible. Map 1 Distribution of the Red-footed Falcon (red-breeding, blue suspected non- breeding range) 4 Table 1 European range states of the Red-footed Falcon in 2009 (countries with significant populations where this SAP need implementation are highlighted in bold) Range states Breeding Migration Wintering Albania n.a. yes no Armenia n.a. n.a. no Austria yes yes no Azerbaijan n.a. n.a. no Belarus yes yes no Belgium no yes no Bosnia and Herzegovina no yes no Bulgaria yes yes no Croatia no yes no Cyprus no yes no Czech Republic no yes no Denmark no n.a. no Estonia yes* yes no Finland yes yes no France yes* yes no Georgia yes* yes no Germany no yes no Greece no yes no Holland no yes no Hungary yes yes no Italy yes yes no Izrael no yes no Kazakhstan** yes yes no Latvia no yes no Liechtenstein no yes no Lithuania yes yes no Luxembourg no yes no Macedonia, F.Y.R. of no yes no Malta no yes no Montenegro no yes no Moldova yes yes no Poland no no no Romania yes yes no Russia (European) yes yes no Serbia yes yes no Slovakia yes yes no Slovenia no yes no Spain no yes no Switzerland no yes no Turkey no yes no Ukraine yes yes no United Kingdom no yes no *data from Birds in Europe II (BirdLife, 2004) ** outside of Europe, with important breeding or migratory population 5 Table of contents 0 – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................7 1 - BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT.....................................................................................8 Taxonomy and biogeographic populations..................................................................8 Distribution throughout the annual cycle.....................................................................8 Habitat requirements .......................................................................................................9 Survival and productivity .............................................................................................10 Population size and trend .............................................................................................10 2 - THREATS ....................................................................................................................14 General overview ...........................................................................................................14 List of the most important threats................................................................................14 Knowledge gaps .............................................................................................................17 3 - POLICIES AND LEGISLATION RELEVANT FOR MANAGEMENT................20 International conservation and legal status of the species .......................................20 National nature conservation and other related legislation.....................................21 Recent and ongoing conservation activities ...............................................................22 4 - FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION ..................................................................................23 Goal of the action plan...................................................................................................23 Objectives of the plan.....................................................................................................23 Results ..............................................................................................................................23 5 - REFERENCES .............................................................................................................32 ANNEX 1 Threats importance at population/group of countries level ..............35 ANNEX 2 Key sites for the species in the European Union ......................................37 ANNEX 3..........................................................................................................................46 National legal status.......................................................................................................46 Recent conservation measures......................................................................................48 Ongoing monitoring schemes for the species ............................................................49 Overview of the coverage of the species in networks of sites with legal protection status......................................................................................................................................50 6 0 – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus is considered Near Threatened both in Europe and globally, due to its large (>30%) decline over three generations (i.e. from the 1970s). The species is listed in Appendix II of CMS, in Appendix II of CITES, in Appendix II of the Bern Convention and in Annex I of the Birds Directive. This action plan covers the range states of the Red-footed Falcon in Europe. It needs to be implemented in the range states in the European Union, Ukraine, Serbia and the Balkans. Red-footed Falcons inhabit steppe, pseudo-steppe, wooded steppe and extensive agricultural habitats. The core of the EU population breeds in the Carpathian Basin which form the western border of the range. A small but stable number of Red-footed Falcons breed in northern Italy. Red-footed Falcons are trans-equatorial migrants wintering in the southern part of Africa. The species is highly gregarious both during the breeding and non-breeding seasons, night roosts of up to 21,000 individuals are known to be formed in the non- breeding period. The Red-footed Falcon is a facultative colonial breeder. It does not build a nest; naturally falcon colonies are formed in Rookeries (Corvus frugilegus). Solitary pairs occupy variety of nesting facilities such as magpie (Pica pica) nests, hooded crow nests (Corvus corone cornix), buzzard nests (Buteo sp.) as well as cavities in trees. The Red-footed Falcon is a generalist predator the most frequent prey items are invertebrates, amphibians and small mammals. As the species is protected throughout the EU and the Mediterranean-Basin, weak law enforcement is the root cause of Red-footed Falcon, shooting mainly during migration. The only exception is Ukraine where the species is not protected and shooting is reported. The Red-footed Falcon is intimately linked to the welfare and size of Corvid populations. Hunting or persecution of Corvids - by direct shooting
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