Development of bird ringing in Croatia and neighbouring countries in the period 1910–1992: new perspectives

Background and Purpose: Based on preserved original bird ringers’ reports and published annual reports on bird ringing, the development of the ringing of birds in Croatia from 1910 to 1992 is discussed in this paper. After the breakdown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1918), Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia made up the common country of Yugoslavia until 1992. Bird ringing is today organized independently in each of the newly founded states so new reports should not be cummulatively added to the older collective ones. The aim of this article is to emphasize the need of organizing the data collected between 1910–1992 separately for each country. This should provide a more realistic insight into earlier bird ringing activities and create a basis for further publication of national bird ringing reports. The article also studies the contribution of bird ringing as a method to the disciplinary development of ornithology in Croatia. Material and Methods: Separation of data on bird ringing for the territory of Croatia from the cumulative data collected between 1910 and 1992 was conducted on the sample of 25 species. The sources used were the original annual reports written by bird ringers and kept in the Bird ringing archive in the Institute of Ornithology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (CASA). They contain information on bird species, location and date of ringing. To assess the contribution of bird ringing as amethod to the disciplinary development of ornithology in Croatia, we studied the data distribution and the Croatian share in the total bird ringing on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia, as well as the use of the bird ringing data and the reports on ringed birds in conference presentations and research articles published by 1992. Results and Conclusions: The separation of bird ringing data for 25 species (62,094 individual birds) shows that in former Yugoslavia the majority of bird ringing took place outside Croatia. Of the total of 47 reports on bird ringing and on recoveries on ringed birds published by 1992, 34 were used for writing 22 research articles and 16 conference presentations or abstracts. Throughout the history of bird ringing, the Institute of Ornithology, CASA, has remained the organizer of the activity and the custodian of the Bird ringing archive. The institute should now draw up an inventory of all data collected up to present time. Furthermore, the data should be digitalized and, as a Digital bird ringing database, made accessible to a wider ornithological audience. The year 2010 as the 100th anniversary of bird ringing offers an opportunity to highlight the role of Croatia in the development and organization of this activity, and to modernize data processing

Dopuna popisa ptica otoka Šolte

This paper presents data on 26 species and two subspecies, which are new in relation to the already existing list of the birds of the Šolta Island published two decades ago, and which add up to the knowledge of its ornithofauna to an overall number of 132 species. New data were gathered from various sources: 7 species were recorded during the authors’ own field research on the island, 3 species concern the recovery of ringed birds, 12 species were found in the private collections of J. Purtić and the Vlak family, 2 new species in the catalogue of the ornithological collection of the Natural History Museum in Split, 1 new species from the catalogue of the Bird Collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb and 1 in the older ornithological literature. From the total of 26 species new to Šolta Island, 3 are breeding birds, and 23 are migrant or winter visitors birds of the island.U ovom radu prikazano je 26 vrsta (i dvije podvrste) koje su nove u odnosu na dosadašnji popis ptica za otok Šoltu objavljen prije dva desetljeća, a koje dopunjuju saznanja o ornitofauni ovoga otoka na ukupno 132 vrste. Novi podaci dobiveni su iz različitih izvora: 7 vrsta na temelju vlastitih terenskih istraživanja, 3 vrste obradom podataka prstenovanih ptica, 12 vrsta na temelju privatnih zbirki J. Purtića i obitelji Vlak, 2 vrste iz kataloga Ornitološke zbirke Prirodoslovnog muzeja u Splitu, 1 vrsta iz kataloga Zbirke ptica Hrvatskog prirodoslovnog muzeja te 1 vrsta iz starije ornitološke literature. Od ukupno 26 vrsta 3 su gnjezdarice, a 23 su proljetno-jesenske selice ili zimovalice otoka Šolte

Cochlostoma elegans (Clessin, 1879) na otoku Pagu (Mollusca: Gastropoda, Prosobranchia)

The land snail Cochlostoma elegans (Clessin, 1879) has been found on the island of Pag (Croatia) for the first time. This is also the first ever insular finding of this species.Kopneni puž Cochlostoma elegans (Clessin, 1879) prvi puta je nađen na otoku Pagu (Hrvatska). To je ujedno prvo otočno nalazište te vrste uopće

Prvi nalaz stepskog guža Dolichophis caspius (Gmelin, 1789), (Reptilia: Colubridae) na otoku Olibu, Hrvatska

During a field study within the framework of a joint Croatian-Hungarian project on the small northern Dalmatian island of Olib, the large whip snake Dolichophis caspius (Gmelin, 1789) was observed and photographed at several localities. Though this is not the first island record of this species in Croatia, as it was previously found on the islands of Lastovo, Kopište and Mrčara, this finding is surprising due to the great distance from the other known localities of its distribution range.U okviru zajedničkog hrvatsko-mađarskog projekta tijekom terenskih istraživanja na malom sjevernodalmatinskom otoku Olibu, na nekoliko lokaliteta uočen je i fotografiran stepski guž Dolichophis caspius (Gmelin, 1789). Iako to nije prvi otočni nalaz ove vrste u Hrvatskoj (pronađen je i na otocima Lastovu, Kopištu i Mrčari) iznenađujući je stoga što je jako udaljen od drugih dosad poznatih nalazišta

Survival chances of ground nests in three different habitats in Krka National Park (Croatia)

Background and Purpose: Diverse Mediterranean wetlands sustain a high diversity of breeding birds. Breeding success of birds nesting on protected wetlands along river Krka is also influenced by predators. The aim of our study was to explore effects of predator pressures on ground nests of strictly protected birds using artificial nest located along environmental gradient. Materials and Methods: In May 2004 in locality Čulišićke bare, by placing out three batches of 25 artificially constructed ground nests in three different habitats: reed bed, marsh and meadow. The nests contained three chicken (real) eggs for the evaluation of nest predation rates, and plasticine (artificial) eggs for predator identification from tooth and bill imprints. Results and Conclusions: The number of nests depredated during one week was highest in wetland habitats: 52% was depredated in the marsh and 32% in the reed bed. However, a much lower damage rate (16%) was experienced in the meadow. The daily survival rate of nests did not differ significantly between the reed bed (0.95) and the marsh (0.91). However, the daily survival rates of nests in the meadow (0.98) was significantly higher (z = 2.49 P = 0.01) than in the marsh, bat no difference was found with comparing with the reed bed. Predators were difficult to determine because plasticine eggs usually disappeared from the nests in the reed bed. In the marsh and the meadow, primary predators were smaller birds, whereas small mammals were also important in the marsh. Nests in which predators succeeded in breaking at least one egg were later destroyed most by Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix). To apply these results for bird protection, the breeding success of certain threatened bird species should be monitored for a longer period.</p