Difficult season for the Saker Falcon population in southeastern Romania: only two pairs bred successfully, fledging ten chicks

Between March 18 and April 25, SOR specialists carried out extensive monitoring in southeastern Romania to assess the status of Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) pairs before and during the breeding season. Field surveys aimed to check known nests, identify new territories, and monitor the breeding success of existing pairs.

During the first fieldwork phase, the team surveyed nearly 3,500 kilometres of high-voltage power lines, anthropogenic structures used by Sakers for nesting in the region, and assessed 248 known nests and nest boxes within the study area. In 2026, biologists identified an additional 87 new nests with potential suitability for the species.
Monitoring continued between May 13 and 24, when areas with high potential were revisited at 10–14 day intervals to document territory occupancy and the reproductive success of breeding pairs.

This year, eight territories occupied by Saker Falcons were identified; however, only four pairs reoccupied nests that had also been used during the previous breeding season.
Unfortunately, most pairs experienced a difficult season. Two pairs unsuccessfully attempted to occupy new nests, while another pair managed to settle in a nearby nest box, but the nesting attempt failed. Another pair abandoned the artificial nest where it had laid an egg the previous year that failed to hatch and moved into a natural nest of a Common Buzzard. There, the pair successfully raised five chicks to fledging age.
Of the four pairs that retained their nests from previous years, one did not lay eggs this season either, marking the third consecutive year without breeding following its successful attempt in 2023, when the pair raised one chick. Two other pairs failed, with clutches of two eggs and one egg, respectively, failing to hatch. The fourth pair, considered the most stable in the monitored population and present in the same territory for nearly a decade, had an exceptional year, successfully raising five fledglings.
Thus, although the number of pairs with successful breeding decreased compared to last year, when three pairs nested successfully, the total number of occupied territories remained constant. At the same time, the number of chicks reaching fledging age increased from six in 2025 to ten this year, an encouraging sign for the development of the southern Saker Falcon population.
This season’s monitoring activities, carried out as part of the LIFE FOR FALCONS project, involved a team of eight SOR biologists and one volunteer, documenting for the fifth consecutive year the status of one of Romania’s rarest and most vulnerable birds of prey, the Saker Falcon.
In the Red Lists of Romania and Bulgaria, Falco cherrug is classified as Critically Endangered, and its unfavorable conservation status is the result of human activities: electrocution, poaching, illegal trade for falconry, habitat degradation, and agricultural intensification. Therefore, increasing awareness, understanding, and support capacity among stakeholders and local communities is more necessary than ever in order to achieve conservation objectives for the Saker Falcon in this part of Europe.