Saker Falcon

I just got an email from a birder who was on a recent tour I led here in Hungary. He wrote that his bird of the week was Saker Falcon. In fact, he (we) saw at least 8 different adult birds on that trip and a few chicks were 'scoped, too. So he had his main target, his "lifer" over and over again. Saker falcon (Falco cherrug) is a raptor conservation success story here in Hungary. After decades of decline, due to pesticide use, egg collecting and the robbing of chicks for the falconry trade, this powerful falcon has recently made something of a comeback. Pairs are dotted around the southeast of the region with a core population of around 150 pairs in Hungary's lowlands. Sakers are built to take medium-sized birds like doves, pigeons and shorebirds and mammals such as hamsters and sousliks, but they are also not averse to stealing prey from other raptors.