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Habitat and weather requirements of diurnal raptors wintering in river valleys

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Abstract

The winter raptor community was studied in river valleys of North Eastern Poland during the winters of 2000–2010. Via transect counts method we showed the potential drivers of raptor abundance, and co-occurrence patterns. We analysed the influence of weather and habitat factors along on the single species abundance and diversity of the raptor assemblage. We found that higher temperatures corresponded with higher occurrence of the common buzzard Buteo buteo, rough-legged buzzard Buteo lagopus, Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, hen harrier Circus cyaneus and lower of the common kestrel Falco tinnunculus. When considering the effect of each habitat variable on the whole raptor assemblage, the relative proportion of urban areas to pasture had the most distinct effect on species abundance and diversity. Most of species were found to be less abundant in areas with a high proportion of urban areas, while some, like the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis, occurred more often on such areas. We observed that the difference in the number of these species could be explained mainly by the different habitat requirements due to individual food preferences and flexibility of migration strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the observers from the Biology Students Scientific Club at the Institute of Biology, University of Białystok, supervised by W. Chętnicki, for the years of effort to organize the Wintering Birds Survey. This paper is a collection of years of engagement of many counters, especially: J. Banach, P. Białomyzy, A. Czerwiec, A. Gabiński, G. Grygoruk, M. Junewicz, W. Januszkiewicz, P. Kłosowski, J. Kosior, K. Krahel, A. Krasnodębska, T. Markowski, Ł. Mazurek, A. Nawrocki, S. Niedzwiecki, R. Polak, W. Sawicki, M. Skierczyński, D. Sokołowski, K. Ł. Meina, R. Siuchno, Sokołowski, J. Stepaniuk, M. Trzcinka, M. Włodkowski, A. Wnorowska, M. Zahorowska, T. Złotkowski. We would like to thank about 50 other people who were not mentioned here for their help during the surveys. We also thank S.J. Potting and J. Przybylska for the language corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, University of Szczecin, Wąska 13, PL-71-415, Szczecin, Poland

    Łukasz Jankowiak

  2. Department of Environmental Protection and Management, Białystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45a, PL-15-351, Białystok, Poland

    Michał Polakowski

  3. Polish Society for the Bird Protection, Kolejowa-Wejmutka, PL-17-230, Białowieża, Poland

    Tomasz Kułakowski

  4. Natural Society Dubelt, Juszkowy Gród 17, PL-16-050, Michałowo, Poland

    Piotr Świętochowski & Tomasz Tumiel

  5. Biology Students Scientific Club at the Institute of Biology, University of Białystok, Świerkowa 20B, PL-15-950, Białystok, Poland

    Monika Broniszewska

  6. Institute of Zoology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71-c, 60-625, Poznań, Poland

    Viktória Takács

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  1. Łukasz Jankowiak
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Jankowiak, Ł., Polakowski, M., Kułakowski, T. et al. Habitat and weather requirements of diurnal raptors wintering in river valleys. Biologia 70, 1136–1142 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2015-0117

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