Birds of the extinct species Lesser Kestrel breed at Green Balkans’ Wildlife Rescue Center!

In the past few days, two of the pairs of Lesser Kestrels (Falco naumanni) at Green Balkans’ Wildlife Rescue Center laid their first eggs for 2013. These rare birds, which have not been confirmed as a breeding species in Bulgaria, breed successfully at the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Center. So far, there are five eggs, as three of them are in the cage of the oldest and most experienced pair.

The threatened falcons are part of Green Balkans’ program aimed at restoring the Lesser Kestrels as a breeding species in Bulgaria. One of the steps under this ambitious initiative is the provision of juvenile birds, which will be later on released into the wild. In order to secure a sufficient number of juvenile birds that can be released, Lesser Kestrels are also bred in Spain, namely at the Lesser Kestrel Breeding Center of DEMA – Associate Beneficiary within “Lesser Kestrel Recovery” LIFE11 NAT/BG/360. The birds bred in Spain laid their first eggs as early as mid-April.

The chicks hatched in captivity in Spain and Bulgaria will be accommodated in a hacking facility, and then, in the summer, will be released into the wild. The release site is situated in Sakar SPA (BG0002021), part of the NATURA 2000 European Ecological Network. This is the area, where in the late 1980s Lesser Kestrel breeding was last recorded in Bulgaria.

The members of the project team hope that through the partnership between the project beneficiaries – Green Balkans, DEMA, and EURONATUR, and with the support of LIFE financial instrument of the European Union, the Lesser Kestrels will be soon recovered and restored in Bulgaria’s wildlife.
HERE you can learn more about the first Lesser Kestrel egg laid in Spain in 2013.