Life for Falcons

About the project

The project ‘Securing the recovery of the endangered Saker Falcon in Bulgaria and Southern Romania’ is dedicated to the restoration and conservation of the endangered species Falco Cherrug in 28 Natura 2000 areas. The overarching concept of this project is to boost the population recovery by reducing the impact of the main threats combined with external efforts of an ongoing restocking project in Bulgaria that has proven to be successful already.

Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds is the coordinating beneficiary of the project in partnership with Green Balkans, Romanian Ornithological Society, Union of Hunters and Anglers in Bulgaria, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian at Academy of Sciences, The Habitat Foundation, and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

The project Securing the recovery of the endangered Saker Falcon in Bulgaria and Southern Romania (LIFE20 NAT/BG/001162) is of 5 years duration and has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Our news

IBER team mapped successfully Romanian hamster colonies in Bulgaria

Aug. 02, 2022

Help us save the souslik together!

Jul 29, 2022

Green Balkans presented the project at Uzana Poliana Fest 2022

Jul 27, 2022

Interministerial group with expert from BSPB’s project team startеd working on the establishment of a special unit for investigation of the crimes against the nature

Jul 25, 2022

А second pair of Saker Falcons was registered on the territory of Bulgaria!

Jul 15, 2022

BSPB started collaboration with racing pigeon clubs to mitigate the conflict with birds of prey

Jul 06, 2022

First specialized course for qualification and capacity building of the state institution against use of poisons in the nature has been held in Bulgaria

Jun 28, 2022

Second edition of the Hunter’s Guide have been published by BSPB and UHAB

Jun 24, 2022

The Saker Falcon

The Saker falcon is a large powerful falcon, slightly bigger in size in comparison with the Peregrine falcon. The body length is between 47-55 cm, the wingspan is 105-129 cm; the tail length is 16-26 cm; weight 730-1150g. Sexes have similar plumage but females are ca. 15% larger and 40% heavier than males.
The plumage is brown above and streaked below with a paler head and whitish supercilia (eyebrow). It has a relatively small head on broad-chested, though long and otherwise slender body with long wings and long tail. In flight the silhouette is similar to the Peregrine but is with rather broad wings with blunt tips.

Small mammals

The conservation of the Saker Falcon will rely on multi-sided holistic approach in which breeding and reintroducing small mammals, such as the European Souslik and Romanian Hamster which are key prey species for the falcon, has an important part.