Curiosities
In 2002 the first successful breeding attempt of the imperial eagle on high-voltage electric pylon was recorded in the Carpathian basin. The pair raised three chicks. However, in 2003 no breeding attempt has been known on electric pylon.
According to reports from that time three-chick clutches of imperial eagles were regular in Hungary during the sixties. However, for several decades after that there had been no case recorded when imperial eagles layed three eggs. The first recent record dates from 1996, and since then three-chick clutches have become regular again. Both in 2002 and 2003 five pairs were known to fledge three chicks.
In summer 2002 an adult male imperial eagle was found dead under the trees of a mountain nest site. The bird was wearing an aluminium ring on its right leg, thanks to which it turned out that the eagle had been ringed as a nestling in 1976 in the Deliblat Sand Plains in former Jugoslavia (Serbia) by István Hám. The ring had been seen on the adult bird already in 1994, but there had not been any opportunity to read its code.


In 2003 we observed a football-fan pair of imperial eagles: a lowland breeding pair built its nest at the edge of a grass football pitch of a secondary school, in a line of pine trees just about 300 m far from the school buildings. At the time of nest construction the children did not use yet the pitch which was still partly covered by icy snow, but as the school director informed us the pitch would be frequently used from the arrival of the warmer spring weather on. It was obvious that a successful breeding would have no chances on the “tribune”. So we decided to throw the nest off the tree and to construct an artificial nest at a safe location about 2 km from there. (In the eagle nest we found a dry end of a bread and a colourful German television-magazine, both brought to the nest by the eagles.)

Five days after this action we discovered a new, half-made nest at the football pitch on a tree neighbouring the previous nest – this one was thrown off too. In this way we managed to convince the eagles to move and they finally constructed their nest in a nearby tree-line at a safe location (they did not occupy the artificial nest – a pair of Saker Falcons bred there). The eagles raised two chicks in the new nest out of which one fledged successfully (the other nestling died for unknown reason).