Their numbers are scarily low, and they are Serbia's treasure: Bird protection society launches campaign

Photo: Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS)/Klajdi Duro

The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS) announced today that it is launching a major campaign to raise funds for the survival of the eastern imperial eagle, a bird of prey whose image is featured on our national symbols, but that has been on the verge of extinction here for years.

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"Recently, the six-year PannonEagle LIFE project was completed, within the framework of which, for the first time in our country, around the block watch over a pair of these birds was organized, metal platforms for nesting of the eastern imperial eagle were installed, overgrown meadows were mowed and feeding grounds were created. These efforts have yielded results, and now, at the beginning of 2023, we have five breeding pairs of eastern imperial eagles," a statement said.

It is added that the number is encouraging, but still extremely low, and that help is necessary. Campaign coordinator from the BPSSS, Uros Stojiljkovic, cited 2016 as proof of this, when a tree with a nest on it collapsed during a summer storm and buried eagles along with their offspring.

"The birds survived only thanks to a quick intervention of volunteers who saved them and placed them in an artificial nest. If no one was watching over them at the time, probably all of them would have perished and the story of the eastern imperial eagle in Serbia would have been over," Stojiljkovic said.

(Telegraf.rs)