Abstract
Urban sprawl is recognized to homogenize biota, with several species that fail to adapt to these new human scenarios. However, some species can live and breed successfully in urbanized habitats. We compared the breeding performance of the relatively common raptor and poorly studied, chimango caracara (Milvago chimango) in an urban gradient of central Argentina. Breeding data of 359 nests were collected during breeding seasons from 2010 to 2012. Birds nested in colonies of 3 – 75 pairs. Overall breeding success was 49.9% with productivity at 1 ± 1.14 chicks per nest. Models revealed that reproductive success and productivity were higher in nests with earlier laying dates and sited in larger colonies and that urbanization gradient did not affect either reproductive output or laying day. Urban habitats in central Argentina appear to provide similar reproductive success of chimango caracara than rural or natural habitats. Thus, chimango caracara shows behavioral plasticity for their successful persistence to human changes as reflected in successfully breeding in a wide variety of habitats such as natural, rural, and urbanized environments that have been impacted by humans.
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Acknowledgements
We express our thanks to Andrea Costán and countless collaborators for their field assistance, to Juana, Juan and Maximiliano of La Armonía ranch for their help and permission to work in this site, to community of neighbors of La Cuesta del Sur for their permission to enter their land and to the commissionors of Golf Club and Club de Caza Mappú Vey Puudú for authorizing our work at these sites. We appreciate the improvements in English usage made by Peter Lowther and Pam Denmon through the Association of Field Ornithologists' program of editorial assistance. This work was conducted under permits for the use of wild animals in research awarded by Dirección de Recursos Naturales, Ministerio de la Producción, Gobierno de La Pampa.
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Conceptualization: Claudina Solaro and José Hernán Sarasola; Methodology: Claudina Solaro; Formal analysis and investigation: Claudina Solaro; Writing—original draft preparation: Claudina Solaro; Review: Claudina Solaro.
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Solaro, C., Sarasola, J.H. Breeding performance is explained for coloniality and phenology but not for urbanization in a generalist raptor bird. Urban Ecosyst 26, 743–753 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01319-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01319-3