POPULATION-GENETICS AND PATERNITY ANALYSI S OF ELEONORAS FALCON (FALCO-ELEONORAE)

Philopatry was studied in a larger breeding colony of Falco eleonorae on an Aegean island. Male falcons settle in or very close to the terri tory in which they were born (mean distance 192 +/- 153 m), whereas fe males disperse to adjacent territories (mean distance 738 +/- 1104 m) and even colonies to some degree. DNA fingerprinting of 17 families (w ith a total of over 60 young) revealed that intraspecific brood parasi tism and extra-pair fertilizations do not occur although these falcons breed in close vicinity, sometimes only 5 m apart. This means, that t he birds feeding at the nest are also the physical parents. Band-shari ng coefficients show that the birds within the same colony show some d egree of relatedness, but no clear band patterns were evident between different colonies lying within the same island archipelago.