Conservation status

The red-footed falcon is listed as near threatened in the IUCN red list, and in Annex I of the Wild Birds Directive (79/409/EEC), while it is a strictly protected species in Hungary. The Red-footed Falcon European Species Action Plan has been officially published in 2010. The document was edited by experts of MME/BirdLife Hungary on behalf of BirdLife Internationals request.

The world population is estimated between 26.000-39.000 pairs, bulk of the population breeding in the steppe grasslands of Russia, and central Asia, but a considerable population breeds in the Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. The Hungarian population was estimated between 700-800 pairs in 2005, showing a steady decline. Int he last year of the „Conservation of Falco vespertinus in the Pannonian Region” LIFE Nature project (LIFE05 NAT/H/000122) in 2009 the Hungarian poulation was estimated between 1000-1100 pairs. Within the scope of the LIFE Nature project we’ve developed a new monitoring protocol to monitor population trends and the effects of conservation measures taken. These methods developed between 2006-2008 were a base of the bi-countrywide breeding population monitoring scheme, and a handful of project actions aim to understand and solve special conservation issues concerning Red-footed falcons in our running Hungary-Serbia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme.