Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Grzegorz Zawadzki
• Dorota Zawadzka
• Anna Soltys
• Stanislaw Drozdowski

Titel

Nest-site selection by the white-tailed eagle and black stork - implications for conservation practice

Ist Teil von

• 森林生态系统（英文版）, 2020, Vol.7 (4), p.781-792

Ort / Verlag

Department of Forest Protection, Institute of Forest Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warszawa, Poland%Department of Forestry, University of Lodz, Branch in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Konstytucji 3 Maja 65/67, 97-200 Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland%Department of Silviculture, Institute of Forest Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warszawa, Poland

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background: Nesting trees and habitat represent the key factor underpinning stand selection by forest-dwelling birds. While two large European species - the black stork (Ciconia nigra L.) and white-tailed eagle (Haliaaetus albicilla L.) -are known to require old, large trees for nesting, we sought to investigate further by comparing species requirements at the levels of the nesting tree, nesting stand, and landscape. This entailed a detailed examination of forest features within circles of radius 15 m surrounding 16 and 19 trees holding the nests of storks and eagles respectively. The same parameters were also checked in the vicinity of 50 randomly-selected mature trees.Results: Our results indicate different nesting preferences, with the eagles entirely confining themselves to Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) - a species also chosen by black storks, which nevertheless regularly favour pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.). Both species select trees of greater girth than the random ones, but white-tailed eagles choose to nest in the vicinity of patches of mature old stands with a loose canopy, to the extent that nesting trees and surrounding trees are of similar ages. In contrast, black storks prefer "veteran"trees with low-set crowns that are much older than any others in their vicinity. Nesting trees of the eagles are away from roads and close to lakes, while black storks do not avoid roads.Conclusions: As the ages of nesting trees of both species are greater than ages at final cutting in this region's managed forest, silvicultural measures will need to be adjusted, with small patches of forest spared,or larger areas as "islands" of old-growth. Likewise, as tending and thinning are engaged in, certain trees with horizontal branches will need to remain, with relict trees also left untouched. As it happens, all of these recommendations are anyway key elements of close-to nature silviculture and multifunctional forestry.