Information about the objectives, actions, means and expected results of the Falco eleonorae project in Greece.

The Eleonora's Falcon is a dark-coloured, average-sized migratory falcon with long wings that appears in the Mediterranean area in April, returning from East Africa, especially Madagascar, where it spends the winter.

The Aegean bird fauna is characterized by a remarkable diversity of bird species. This diversity is related to the diversity of dwellings but also of landscapes that occur here, and that are related to recent geological phenomena that have contributed to the Aegean's present shape, with its thousands of islands and islets.

For the first time in Greece, satellite telemetry is being used for tracking of Eleonora’s Falcons migration from Greece to their wintering areas in SE Africa and Madagascar, in order to investigate the migration routes followed by the birds.

The four tracked Eleonora’s Falcons started their migratory journey from Greece to Africa in mid October. The following map, which is regularly updated, shows the migratory routes of the 4 birds. They all started their journey from the island of Andros and travel towards their wintering areas, in South Africa and Madagascar.

The aim of this documentary which contains scenes from the census and monitoring activities in 2004 and 2005 from all around the Aegean Archipelagos, is to point out the necessity of implementing conservation measures in order to protect Eleonora's Falcon, and also to present this raptor species and make it familiar to the wider public.

The particular educational material has the shape that has been established in recent years as "Environmental Education Package", since it contains various materials that can aid in the topic's presentation inside schools (either as a one-hour programme or an annual educational programme about the specific species and the Aegean). It has been prepared for children in the last classes of elementary and in secondary school, but also contains suggestions for older children.

Informational leaflets about the Eleonora's falcon.

Bibliographic references about Eleonora’s Falcon from the Hellenic Ornithological Society’s library and beyond.

In the spring 2005, started a project for the eradication of rats from 3 small islets, Kasidis, Lachanou and Polemika near Skantzoura in the National Marine Park of Northern Sporades

Though the processing and evaluation of the collected data is still in progress, the first estimations indicate incontestably that Greece is the most important country for the breeding of Eleonora"s Falcon worldwide

This year, Eleonora"s Falcon "traveled" to many islands of the Aegean through a series of presentations organized by the HOS between July and September 2005

The training seminar was crowned with success and took place at the Cultural Centre of Apeiranthos in Naxos for the 16th-19th of March, 2005, with the kind support of the community of Apeiranthos and the City of Drymalia that once again assisted the work

The HOS (Hellenic Ornithological Society) is organizing a seminar for the training of wardens working in protected areas, in the context of the European Project LIFE-Nature for the protection of Falco eleonorae