Abstract
SummaryFarmland birds represent a large proportion of European avifauna, and the populations of several species have suffered a dramatic decline in recent decades. Among these species, the European Turtle DoveStreptopelia turturhas undergone rapid decline in much of its European range. Therefore, the main aims of this research are to estimate the population density of the Turtle Dove and to investigate its habitat use at home range scale in an intensively cultivated agroecosystem in northern Italy. In the 2015 breeding season we carried out turtle dove counts from 372 point-counts, randomly allocated following a stratified cluster sampling design. The density was estimated by distance sampling, whereas the habitat suitability was assessed by Resource Selection Probability Function. In particular, we followed a presencevsavailability approach, using binary logistic regression and the Information-Theoretic approach. During fieldwork, 76 observations of Turtle Dove were collected and a density of 5.0 pairs/km2was estimated. The Turtle Dove inhabits areas with high tree cover, either semi-natural forests or tree plantations, as well as areas with many shrubs and hedgerows. On the other hand, areas with a high proportion of crops, such as paddyfields, maize, and winter cereals are avoided. For the species’ conservation, it is necessary to maintain a combination of habitat features with suitable nesting and feeding areas, as the degradation of either of these may reduce Turtle Dove populations.
Highlights
Farmland bird species represent a large proportion of European avifauna, and the populations of several species have suffered a dramatic decline in recent decades, especially in Western Europe (Donald et al 2001, 2002)
The best detection probability function obtained was the uniform + cosine with two parameters (AIC = 179.57, χ2 = 0.389, df = 1.0, P = 0.533) (Table 2). This gave an effective detection radius (EDR) of 107 m and the average probability of detection was estimated to be 0.20 (CV = 14.0%; 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.150.26)
In an intensively cultivated agro-ecosystem in northern Italy, the Turtle Dove has densities of 5.0 pairs/km2; considering the low detectability this estimate could be biased (MacKenzie et al 2006). This species inhabits areas with higher tree cover, either semi-natural forests or tree plantations, as well as areas with many shrubs and hedgerows, that are likely used for nesting
Summary
Farmland bird species represent a large proportion of European avifauna, and the populations of several species have suffered a dramatic decline in recent decades, especially in Western Europe (Donald et al 2001, 2002). The intensification of agricultural practices and the consequent loss of landscape heterogeneity, determined by the destruction of hedgerows, shrubs, tree patches, and other natural areas, is a major threat (Fuller et al 1995, Donald et al 2002, Benton et al 2003, Newton 2004) These changes have led to both the reduction of refuge and breeding sites and to a decrease in invertebrate prey, prompted as well by the increase in biocide use (Wilson et al 1999, Benton et al 2002, Boatman et al 2004, Brambilla 2019). Knowledge of the distribution and characterization of the selected species’ habitats is essential to achieving this goal and, species’ conservation and management planning
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