Nest-site attendance of the resident White-tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) outside the breeding season

• Published in: Acta Zoologica Lituanica
• Main Authors: Dementavičius, Deivis, Treinys, Rimgaudas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Haliaeetus albicilla; Nest-site; Resident; Protection zone
• Online Access: http://lmavb.lvb.lt/LMAVB:ELABAPDB5825329&prefLang=en_US

The territorial pairs of White-tailed Sea Eagle are mainly sedentary and highly faithful to breeding territories and nest-sites. Due to a dramatic population decrease, many recent studies deal with the population status and habitat requirements of the species, but contemporary data on the nest-site attendance activity of the recovered population outside the breeding season are scarce. In the present study, we analysed the bonds of resident adult Sea Eagles with their nest-sites outside the breeding season (20 September - 20 February). We found that Sea Eagles actively attend their nest-sites during the non-breeding season, however, nest-site attendance varied between months, but not between years. Besides, almost half of the checked pairs repaired old or built new nests long before incubation, during September-December. We discuss the obtained results in the light of nest-site protection from forestry-related disturbance and propose to extend the protection of Sea Eagle nest-sites from above mentioned disturbance both during the breeding and non-breeding season.