Satellite tracking of two lesser spotted eagles, Aquila pomarina, migrating from Namibia

One immature and one subadult Lesser Spotted Eagle, Aquila pomarina, were f ollowed by satellite telemetry from their non-breeding areas in Namibia. Bo th birds were fitted with transmitters (PTTs) in February 1994 and tracked, the immature for six months and three weeks, the subadult for eight months and two weeks, over distances of 10 084 and 16 773 km, respectively. Durin g their time in Namibia both birds' movements were in response to good loca l rainfall. The immature eagle left Namibia at the end of February, the sub adult at the end of March. They flew to their respective summer quarters in Hungary and the Ukraine, arriving there 2.5 and 1.5 months later than the breeding adults. The immature eagle took over two months longer on the home ward journey than a breeding male followed by telemetry in a previous study . On returning, the immature eagle followed the narrow flightpath through A frica used by other Lesser Spotted Eagles on their outward migration. It re ached this corridor, which runs roughly between longitudes 31 degrees and 3 6 degrees East from Suez to Lake Tanganyika, veering from the shortest rout e in a direction east-northeast through Angola and Zambia to the southern e nd of Lake Tanganyika. The route taken by the subadult bird on its return m igration differed markedly from that of all Lesser Spotted Eagles tracked t o date, running further west through the Democratic Republic of Congo where , level with the equator, it flew over the eastern rainforest of that count ry. The outward migration, however, followed the same corridor and coincide d in time with the migration of adults. [A German translation of the abstra ct is provided on p. 40].