Social interactions of female and male Montagu’s harrier in Spain

Giovanni Galizia and his team study social interactions in the vulnerable raptor Montagu’s harrier in Spain. Specifically, in La Serena (southwest Spain), where they find most of the individuals living in colonies. The researchers aim to understand how they interact within and between colonies. They therefore use a combination of visual observations during fieldwork: bird tagging, camera trapping, and nest monitoring, partly by drones. “We tagged juveniles for the first time in 2021, using ICARUS tags,” says Giovanni Galizia. Six out of nine juveniles reached their migration sites south of the Sahel. “The aim was to study how they would disperse when returning to Spain, but a halt to collaboration with the ISS because of the Ukraine war terminated data transfer.” That is why the team marked 11 juveniles with other tags this year. The researchers obtained information about movements during the dependency period and thereafter, but predation and heat exhaustion caused high losses. “We also obtained information about one adult female starting a second breeding attempt and a male providing food to two females during the same period,” highlights Giovanni Galizia. This was the most unexpected research finding for him.