Habitats used by Lesser Spotted Eagles (Aquila pomarina) during migration and wintering as revealed by Satellite tracking and remote sensing (in English). 

Population Ecology of Raptors and Owls 6: 87–102.

PDF of full paper:

http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp151_PGE-06-087-102-Gerkmann&Meyburg-Schreiadler.pdf

Summary

Few data have been collected to date on the ecological conditions in the passage and
wintering areas of the Lesser Spotted Eagle. A new instrument for automatic identification
of stopover and migration satellite tracking data was used to gather information
on habitat use in Africa during migration, stopovers and wintering. Satellite
telemetry data from a German pair of Lesser Spotted Eagles was combined with
satellite-supported information on land vegetation cover and other features.
Lesser Spotted Eagle make stopovers of various duration during migration. The
present study differentiates stopovers from migration periods by calculating the daily
flight distance covered and the distances flown and actually covered for three consecutive
fixes.
Essentially three habitat types were frequented, i.e. croplands (29 %), deciduous
woodland (27 %) and deciduous shrubland with sparse trees (25 %).
In addition to habitat use, a study was also made to discover whether regional vegetation
conditions and their seasonal changes influence the choice of stopover area.
For this, NDVI data from the NOAA-AVHRR satellite platform were used. The Lesser
Spotted Eagles seeked out areas where it had rained shortly beforehand. The more
lush vegetation probably offers the birds more dietary resources (insects, amphibiens).
Five of the nine important stopover areas were within or bordering nature reserves.
This study serves as a pilot project and is intended to encourage evaluation in this
way of further satellite telemetry Doppler/Argos locations. New data based on GPS
systems are of particular interest as the time-consuming validation of data is unnecessary
and therefore the fixes can be incorporated without further rev