Effect of agro-forestry and landscape changes on common buzzards (Buteo buteo) in the Alps: Implications for conservation

In Italy, pre-Alpine forests, once managed through coppice silviculture, are being converted to mature woodland, while land abandonment is causing woodland expansion and erosion of open habitats. Based on habitat-selection analyses, we predicted the impact of such changes on common buzzards (Buteo buteo), which depend on forested and open areas for nesting and foraging. Compared to availability, at a micro-scale buzzards selected nests higher above ground and on trees frequently covered by ivy. At the landscape-scale, buzzards avoided roads and conspecifics, while selecting rugged areas with high habitat heterogeneity, probably related to a varied food supply. Productivity was related to the availability of and habitats, probably because of their richness in main prey species. Finally, population density was negatively related to the abundance of eagle owls (Bubo bubo), a potential predator of adults and nestlings, and positively related to the availability of woodland, a low predation-risk habitat rich in food and nest-sites. Therefore, buzzard settlement, density and productivity depended on the complex interplay of food availability, human persecution and predation risk. Thus, the current landscape changes would benefit buzzards by providing more nest-sites, but would be detrimental because of the lower productivity associated with the disappearance of dry open areas. Proposed conservation guidelines focus on conversion of coppice woodland to mature forests and active management of dry heath, a conservation sensitive habitat, through controlled burning. © 2005 The Zoological Society of London.Peer Reviewe

Figure 3 in At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece)

Figure 3. Performance of the 34 sampling units for raptor migration surveys. Numbers represent the average of migrating individuals and species among the three years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Each sampling unit was surveyed for 5 h in each of the five months March, April, May, June and July.Published as part of Schindler, Stefan, Poirazidis, Kostas, Ruiz, Carlos, Scandolara, Chiara, Cárcamo, Beatriz, Eastham, Chris & Catsadorakis, Giorgos, 2014, At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece), pp. 285-300 in Journal of Natural History 49 (5) on page 292, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.836760, http://zenodo.org/record/400406

Figure 4 in At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece)

Figure 4. Polar plot of the directions of migrating raptors and black storks in Dadia NP during spring 2003, 2004 and 2005. The average direction considering all species was 359°. Species are located along the radial axes (scale: log natural) according to the number of individuals observed, ranging from the lesser spotted eagle (n = 29) to the common buzzard (n = 715).Published as part of Schindler, Stefan, Poirazidis, Kostas, Ruiz, Carlos, Scandolara, Chiara, Cárcamo, Beatriz, Eastham, Chris & Catsadorakis, Giorgos, 2014, At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece), pp. 285-300 in Journal of Natural History 49 (5) on page 293, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.836760, http://zenodo.org/record/400406

At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece)

Schindler, Stefan, Poirazidis, Kostas, Ruiz, Carlos, Scandolara, Chiara, Cárcamo, Beatriz, Eastham, Chris, Catsadorakis, Giorgos (2014): At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece). Journal of Natural History 49 (5): 285-300, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.83676

Data from: Sex-dependent carry-over effects on timing of reproduction and fecundity of a migratory bird

Life of many organisms flows as a sequence of annual cycles. Timing of cyclical events is shaped by natural selection also via the domino effects that any life history stage has on the stages that follow. Such ‘carry-over effects’ have major consequences for evolutionary, ecological and demographic processes, but the causes that generate their individual-level variation, including the effect of sex, are poorly understood. We used light-level geolocators to study carry-over effects on the year-round life cycle of the long-distance migratory barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) and sex-dependent variation in their strength. Correlation analyses showed that timing of breeding influenced departure time for autumn migration in females but not in males. In addition, strong, time-mediated carry-over effects of timing of departure from the wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa for spring migration on timing of arrival to the breeding grounds in Italy and Switzerland operated in both sexes. However, carry-over effects of spring migration phenology on breeding date and seasonal fecundity were observed among females but not among males. We used partial least squares path modelling to unveil the complex carry-over effects of phenology during the non-breeding season in combination with the ecological conditions experienced by individual swallows in the wintering area, as gauged by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index values (NDVI), on breeding performance. Phenology during the non-breeding season combined with NDVI during wintering accounted for as much as 65–70% of variation in subsequent seasonal fecundity in females, while such carry-over effects on breeding success of males were weaker. Intense, sex-specific carry-over effects can have impacted on evolutionary processes, including sexual selection, and affected phenological response to climate change, causing the large population decline observed in this species

Figure 2 in At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece)

Figure 2. Sampling units of the systematic raptor monitoring in Dadia National Park.Published as part of Schindler, Stefan, Poirazidis, Kostas, Ruiz, Carlos, Scandolara, Chiara, Cárcamo, Beatriz, Eastham, Chris & Catsadorakis, Giorgos, 2014, At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece), pp. 285-300 in Journal of Natural History 49 (5) on page 288, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.836760, http://zenodo.org/record/400406

Figure 1 in At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece)

Figure 1. Dadia National Park (GR) at the crossroads from Asia to Europe. Letters refer to locations mentioned in the text, A: Dardanelles (TR), B: Evros Delta (GR/TR), C: Dadia NP (GR). Arrows symbolize the main raptor migration routes in spring, 1: Bosphorus (TR), 2: Marmara Flyway (TR), 3: Dardanelles (TR), 4: Black Sea coast (TR/BG), 5: Hypothetical flyway connecting Bosphorus with Central Bulgaria, 6: Flyway connecting Bosphorus and the Evros Delta (TR), 7: Flyway from the Evros Delta northwards along the western fringe of the Evros river floodplain (GR).Published as part of Schindler, Stefan, Poirazidis, Kostas, Ruiz, Carlos, Scandolara, Chiara, Cárcamo, Beatriz, Eastham, Chris & Catsadorakis, Giorgos, 2014, At the crossroads from Asia to Europe: spring migration of raptors and black storks in Dadia National Park (Greece), pp. 285-300 in Journal of Natural History 49 (5) on page 287, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.836760, http://zenodo.org/record/400406

Seifert_et_al_Data_Barnswallows

Data file contains stable isotope data (d2H, d13C, d15N, d18O) measured in Barn Swallows catched in Switzerland and Italy. Stable isotope signatures indicate isotopic conditions in the individual bird's non-breeding grounds in sub-Saharan Africa. Additional information is given: sex, year of capture, centre point (latitude, longitude) of kernel density estimates identified by geolocatio