Young golden eagle "Babsi"
survived her first winter

Of the two young eagles tagged in the Kalkalpen National Park last year, only the female survived. The tagging, which took place as part of an international golden eagle project, provides the first interesting insights into the difficult early years of these proud birds. Female eagle "Babsi" is still in the territory of her parents in the Sengsengebirge . This is very unusual, as young golden eagles have to leave their parents' territory at an early age. According to previous experience, the young eagles then have years of migration in the Alps ahead of them. They can cover daily flight distances of up to 150 km. Observations have shown that young eagles often do not travel alone, but stay with several young eagles in the same area. They presumably prefer stress-free areas where there is no territorial golden eagle breeding pair. Young eagles are violently attacked and chased away by resident, territorial golden eagle pairs when they fly into their occupied territories.

The Kalkalpen golden eagle Babsi was born in the Sengsengebirge and made her first short flight attempts at the beginning of July. She made her first longer flights in her parents' territory from the beginning of September. From this time onwards, she could often be observed accompanied by her mother and sometimes begging. This year, on February 23rd, she made a two-day trip to the Eisenerz Alps and returned the next day. This was followed at the beginning of March by a short trip to Stumpfmauer on the border between Upper Austria and Lower Austria. This was followed several days later by a flight to Kapfenberg, over the Niedere Tauern mountains to Königsee in Bavaria. She is currently back in her parents' territory in the Kalkalpen National Park. She has developed into a magnificent, vital bird. When she flew out of her parents' eyrie, she had already surpassed her father in size and wingspan.

Unfortunately, the development of "Ferdi", the second young eagle from the Kalkalpen to receive a transmitter, was very different. "His transmission data show that he never strayed far from his parents' eyrie. After just three weeks, we received a mortality signal," says DI Christian Fuxjäger, describing his short life. "His exact cause of death could no longer be determined from the already very impaired carcass; he probably starved to death."

The golden eagle "Guilaume", which was tagged in the Dürrenstein wilderness area, shows a different movement behavior. He left his parents' territory for the first time on October 10 in the direction of the Hochschwab region and since December last year he has been staying several times in the flat area around St. Peter in der Au and Kürnberg in the north, which is atypical for golden eagles. Now it regularly sails over the mountains between Judenburg in the south, the Niedere Tauern in the west and Göstling in the east.  

The golden eagle Jana, who was tagged in the Gesäuse National Park in 2023, left her parents' territory very quickly, explored the Göstling Alps, the Dürrenstein Wilderness Area and was also a frequent visitor to the Kalkalpen National Park . The golden eagle, now in its second year, uses the entire Eastern Alps and travels great distances.

The transmission data and movement profiles of the young eagles are being incorporated into an Alpine-wide research project of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany, the Konrad Lorenz Research Center of the University of Vienna and the Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach. The aim of the project is to gain more knowledge about the dispersal behavior of young golden eagles.