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This study was partially supported by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the project CGL2012-30759 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D&I (SEV-2012-0262). RGL was supported by a FPI grant, JMP and PLL by the Juan de la Cierva program, and LG by a contract from the Excellence Projects from the Junta de Andalucía (RNM-6400). JM was supported by an International Outgoing Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2010). BS was supported by the Algerian Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique (DGRSDT/M.E.S.R.S.) and a Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. The Hellenic Ornithological Society and A.G. Leventis Foundation financed the fieldwork in Greece.

Eleonora’s Falcon is a long-distance migrant of the Palearctic region. In recent years, the advent of satellite telemetry has enabled a more detailed investigation of the species’s migratory and wintering periods. In this study, we model the distribution pattern of four Eleonora’s Falcons originating from Greece within their wintering grounds in Madagascar with the use of satellite telemetry data and a niche-based technique, Maxent. The model predicted few highly suitable areas for the occurrence of the species, restricted to elevated areas receiving large amounts of precipitation during the wintering period, containing patches of primary and degraded humid submontane forests as well as cultivation. Most of these areas occurred within the previously estimated home ranges of the four falcons, as well as of three falcons from another independent study. Taking into account the ongoing alterations in landscape structure that occur within the eastern rainforest region of Madagascar, we believe that it is imperative to better understand the ecological requirements of Eleonora’s Falcon. To this end, we recommend the application of Maxent in the study of habitat selection of the species that could be further refined with the inclusion of biotic interactions and seasonal resource availability.

During the breeding seasons of 2004-2006, the population of Eleonora's falcon Falco eleonorae was censused on > 900 islands in the Ionian and the Aegean Seas, Greece. However, only one third of the islands hosted breeding pairs. With our study, we aim at understanding the factors that influence the occurrence of the species' breeding colonies on Greek islands. Thus, we developed generalised linear models for all candidate explanatory variables that according to previous studies are believed to influence the occurrence of the species. We identified the best set of models based on differences in the Akaike Information Criterion, and subsequently, we applied model averaging to estimate model average coefficients for those explanatory variables included in the best set of models. According to our results based on presence-absence data from approximately 370 islands, the presence of breeding colonies is related to the coastline geomorphology, where steep cliffs with ledges are preferred. These geomorphologic characteristics are considered to offer protection from wave action and terrestrial intruders, as well as visual privacy to breeding pairs, and they have previously been associated with nest-site selection. In addition, breeding colonies are more likely to be found on islands close to freshwater bodies and to other neighbouring colonies. Freshwater bodies constitute important foraging areas and provide a means to maintain the falcons' plumage in good condition. The clustered distribution pattern of the breeding colonies is probably due to the process of first-time breeders' settlement and/or colony connectivity. Finally, in view of these preliminary results, we recommend actions to be taken in future studies in order to better understand the role of these factors during the species' breeding period.