The Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina) is a large Eastern European bird of prey. Like all typical eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.
The Lesser Spotted Eagle breeds in Central and Eastern Europe and southeastward to Turkey, and winters in Africa. This is a very wary species of open or lightly wooded country, in which it hunts small mammals and similar terrestrial prey. This eagle lays 1–3 white buff-spotted eggs in a tree nest. As usual for eagles, only in breeding seasons with very abundant prey does more than one young fledge however: the female starts incubating when the first egg has been laid, and thus the first young to hatch usually outgrows its clutchmate(s) and will kill(Cainism)and even eat them sooner or later.The killing of the 2nd born eagle by it's older sibling is very common in the Lesser Spotted Eagle (more common than in larger eagles like the Eastern Imperial Eagle or even the Golden Eagle). Only rarely do 2 eagles fledge.
Distribution
Breeding distribution restricted to eastern Europa. The most western pairs are found in north-eastern Germany. From there eastwards until western Russia (only a small area in Russia). Also in south-eastern Europa ( for example in Romania, Bulgaria), and from Turkey eastwards to the Caucasus.
Spends the winder in east and south Africa.
Migration
The Lesser Spotted Eagle is a strictly migratory species that spends the winter in Africa south of the Sahara. Since satellite transmitters became small enough to be fitted on medium-sized eagles, a lot of new information has been gained about the migration of Lesser Spotted Eagles.
Maxium Age
26 years in the wild.
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