Bird Watching or Twitching in Andalucia Southern Spain
Booted Eagle – Hieraaetus pennatus
The southward migration is now underway and September is the prime time to spot the raptors returning south from their summer sites. Many will be accompanied by their young making their first migration south. The prime sites for seeing this migration are La Cazalla and El Trafico, two hillside viewpoints in the Montes de Tarifa, just to the north-east of the town where the birds congregate prior to making the crossing of the Straits.
The booted eagle is the smallest eagle, about the size of a buzzard and occurs in two forms, a pale version and a darker version. The pale form looks off white at a distance with dark flight feathers, grey tail and grey-buff head and breast. The dark form is brown shading to almost black with a paler tail that shades to dark brown at the trailing edge. When soaring the wing appears to be set slightly forward with the ‘hand’ trailing and the flight is a characteristic gentle, lazy curve. There are accounts of over 500 booted eagles being spotted on the same day.
If you miss the southward migration in September then the booted eagle will return in the spring. Some take up residence in Andalucia in the wooded areas of our Natural Parks