EN
The Honey Buzzard is known as a species difficult to monitor and count. Here we report results of a pilot GPS-tracking study aiming to reveal details of its ecology, that could help in optimization of the species monitoring methods. Five breeding adult Honey Buzzards males were caught and equipped with GPS loggers in Podlasie region, NE Poland: three in the Białowieża Primaeval Forest, one at the Sokółka Hills and one in the city of Białystok. In a mosaic landscape nests were located even in tiny (e.g. as small as 1.2 ha) and young (23-years old) stands. Studied individuals showed home ranges of 11–36 km2 (95% utilization distribution). Most males foraged only up to 3 km from their nests, while one individual up to 5.5 km. The overlap in home ranges of neighboring males reached up to 48%. Breeding territories were left between 8 August and 1 September, depending on nesting success and chick development stage. This study indicates that the monitoring of the Honey Buzzard should be carried out in deciduous forests of all ages and sizes. Monitoring in the second half of September should be done with caution, due to the possible presence of transient individuals, wandering around after nesting failures or during early migration. While mapping territories observers have to bear in mind possible strong overlap of home ranges and their asymmetric shape.