Hieraaetus pennatus
Hieraaetus pennatus
The booted eagle breeds across much of the Palearctic, from the western temperate region to the easternmost parts of Asia (BirdLife International, 2024). In Europe it is abundant in the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas, southern France, the Caucasus, and central Russia and Ukraine (Keller et al., 2020). In Spain it is widely distributed throughout the Iberian Peninsula and also in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla. Its occupancy becomes more fragmented toward the northwestern and southeastern parts of the peninsula (García Dios in SEO/BirdLife, 2022).
In the Community of Madrid it is present across much of the territory except the metropolitan area, the most arid southern zones, and the treeless eastern areas. Its distribution largely coincides with that of other forest raptors such as the common buzzard and the goshawk, although it is more restricted to the mountain belt (Díaz et al., 1994).
In the national park it is widely distributed throughout the protected area, always associated with forested zones. It is a raptor whose nests are difficult to detect, and its nesting sites may be more numerous than observed.
This is an eminently forest-dwelling species, although it also moves through other areas such as agricultural and mosaic landscapes with shrubland, meadows, riverbanks, and even peri-urban zones (García Dios, 2016). It builds its nest in a wide variety of forest formations from sea level up to mountain areas at 1,600 m in altitude. It establishes breeding territories in montane pine forests, oak and chestnut woodlands, cork oak and holm oak forests, riparian woodlands, dehesas, etc. In the Balearic Islands most pairs nest on cliffs, although they may also build platforms in nearby trees (Viada and Androver, 2020).
In the national park it appears associated with open and shrub-dominated areas, as these are places it uses for hunting and where it is easier to detect. Within the park its breeding habitat consists mainly of hillside pine forests and, to a lesser extent, oak woodlands.
At a global scale it is considered a Least Concern species (LC; 2021). In Europe it would also be classified in the same category (LC; 2021). In Spain it is listed as Near Threatened in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) classifies the species under the threat category “Of Special Interest”.
BirdLife International 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
Díaz, J. 2006. El águila calzada y su conservación en la Comunidad de Madrid. Fondo para la Investigación y Conservación de los Animales Salvajes y su Hábitat. Madrid.
Equipa Atlas 2022. III Atlas das Aves Nidificantes de Portugal (2016-2021). SPEA, ICNF, LabOr/UÉ, IFCN.
Fernández-García, J. M. y Gainzarain, J. A. 2006. Tendencias poblacionales recientes de la avifauna del País Vasco y de Navarra, según las variaciones de su distribución. En Fernández-García, J. M. (ed.): Actas del Encuentro de Ornitología en Álava. Diputación Foral de Álava. Vitoria.
García Dios, I. S. 2016. Aguililla calzada Hieraaetus pennatus. En Salvador, A. y Morales, M. B. (eds.): Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Madrid.
SEO/BirdLife (Molina, B., Nebreda, A, Muñoz, A. R., Seoane, J., Real, R. Bustamante, J. y Del Moral, J. C., eds.). 2022. III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.
Viada, C. y Adrover, M. 2020. Població reproductora i tendència de l’àguila calçada Hieraaetus pennatus a Mallorca en 2020. Anuario Ornitològic de les Balears, 35: 1-11.