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    MACEDONIA --- Historical status --- Current status --- What have we done --- Conclusion  
 
 

Historical status

Historical Saker data for Macedonia is scarce. During 1930’s-1980’s the species was registered 5 times but only one observation of a single bird during the breeding season (April, 1958). The rest of the records come from non-breeding season. Based on this, Dimovski (1972) states that Saker is only migratory species in Macedonia (Micevski in litt.). 

Current status

There are 4 certain species records during the 21st. Three of them refer to single birds observations during the breeding season. Additionally there are 4 more Falcon records that authors presume were Sakers but were not positively identified as Saker Falcons. According to the International Action Plan for Saker Falcon (Nagy & Demeter, 2006) 0-3 pairs inhabit Macedonia (data provided by Metodia Velevski).
Saker Falcons from Macedonia – museum specimens
© B. Micevski
   
 
 
     
 

What have we done:

Expedition was conducted in 2007 aiming to clarify Saker presence. Three organizations took part in the survey - Institute of Biology (Prof. Branko Micevski and Aleksander Manasov), International Wildlife Consultants (UK) Ltd. (Dr. Andrew Dixon) and The Association for Protection and Breeding Birds of Prey – JARAK (Ognen Polenak). The survey revealed only few Lanner Falcon territories, but not Saker Falcons. DNA (feather samples) was collected from Lanner Falcons. This material will be used in a study on genetics of Hierofalcons especially in terms of getting better understanding of historical hybridizations in the region between Sakers and Lanners that was suggested by Boev & Dimitrov (1995).

 
 

Conclusion

Confirmed breeding of Saker Falcons in Macedonia have never been reported. The species was always rare in the past and is probably extinct nowadays.

 
 
SESN is coordinated by:
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Sofia 1113, Yurii Gagarin str. 2
www.ecolab.bas.bg; gsm +359 898 58 55 53; Fax +359 2 870 54 98; e-mail: dimitar.ragyov@gmail.com