A new nesting couple of a red-footed falcon – a bird species that is all but extinct in Slovakia – was spotted near Trnava after a hiatus of some 40 years, said the 'Raptor Protection of Slovakia' (RPS) organisation on Thursday.
As a result, there are now merely three known couples of this bird species including the newly-found pair. “A colleague of ours who lives in that area notified us of a couple of the red-footed falcons living there, and subsequently spotted a male bird there. We went to check the area and after two days we could see a lovely couple of this precious gem of Slovak nature nesting in a nest abandoned by a magpie. I watched with bated breath how the male brought food to a female, who judging by how she acted had only been roosting for a few days,” said RPS's Jozef Chavko. The previous instance of nesting of this bird species in Trnava area goes back to the late 1970’s.
