looduskalender.ee

Foto: Aivar Veide
 

The white-tailed eagle has repopulated Estonia during the last decades. At present about 170 couples are stationary here; the number in winter is estimated to about 500. Nearly half of our wintering white-tailed eagles carry coloured rings on their feet; so we know that the winter sojourners come from the Kola Peninsula, Finland, Sweden. The Baltic Sea population of white-tailed eagles was saved by the extra feeding that started in the 1980’s. Today the principal aim of feeding is to allow us to read the rings, in order to understand the spread, migrations and biological characteristics of the biggest European bird of prey better. The white-tailed eagle has become the symbol of the optimistic hopes for our environmental protection movement.