Quand les faucons nichent au sol

All Accipitrids build a nest of sticks lined with softer material. Nest sites are usually in a commanding position on a cliff or in a tree, but a few species such as the harriers nest on the ground. Falcons typically nest on cliff walls or artificial structures. But there are a few exceptions, such as the the New Zealand Falcon that breeds on the ground within the forests of the archipelago : this is indeed the perfect environment for rearing chicks, but it does make them highly vulnerable to introduced predators and forestry operations. But even cliffs-dwelling species like Lanner (Falco biamicus) can install their nest on the ground when other substrates are scarce : during a trip in Mauritania in early April 2004, Volker Salewski and Veronika Martignoli found a Lanner on its nest that was a shallow bowl scraped in the sand. The description of this unusual sight was published in the issue 27 of Malimbus, a bilingual, biannual publication published by the West African Ornithological Society. Its object is to promote scientific interest in the birds of West Africa and to further the region’s ornithology.