<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>During the 2016 field season, we investigated the influence of intense nest digging predation at a Sand Martin colony that is situated in natural habitat along the Tisza river. Over this season, foxes dug a large number of holes which either partly or fully destroyed 39% of burrows in a large colony, comprising over 1,500 pairs. This high level of predation caused death and/or injury to between 7% and 44% of breeding individuals and lowered the reproductive success of the colony as on average 20% (between 5% and 43%) less nestlings were fledged. The level of digging showed a negative exponential growth with burrow density. Our observations show that the burrows were most at threat between 0 m and 0.4 m from the top and between 0 m and 1.4 m from the bottom of the wall. These observations show that it is critically important to decrease the number of foxes and other potential nest predators, whose numbers have increased well above ‘natural’ levels over the last decade, in regions where Sand Martins are nesting as this species is in drastic decline.</p></abstract>

During the 2016 field season, we investigated the influence of intense nest digging predation at a Sand Martin colony that is situated in natural habitat along the Tisza river. Over this season, foxes dug a large number of holes which either partly or fully destroyed 39% of burrows in a large colony, comprising over 1,500 pairs. This high level of predation caused death and/or injury to between 7% and 44% of breeding individuals and lowered the reproductive success of the colony as on average 20% (between 5% and 43%) less nestlings were fledged. The level of digging showed a negative exponential growth with burrow density. Our observations show that the burrows were most at threat between 0 m and 0.4 m from the top and between 0 m and 1.4 m from the bottom of the wall. These observations show that it is critically important to decrease the number of foxes and other potential nest predators, whose numbers have increased well above ‘natural’ levels over the last decade, in regions where Sand Martins are nesting as this species is in drastic decline.

A high level of nest predation observed in a large Sand Martin <italic>(Riparia riparia)</italic> colony

Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Nyíregyháza, 4400 Nyíregyháza, Sóstói út 31/b,

4244 Újfehértó, Radnóti Miklós utca 10.,

Ornis Hungarica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

A high level of nest predation observed in a large Sand Martin  colony

During the 2016 field season, we investigated the influence of intense nest digging predation at a Sand Martin colony that is situated in natural habitat along...

A high level of nest predation observed in a large Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) colony

Published Online: Jan 25, 2017

Page range: 46 - 53

Received: Oct 26, 2016

Accepted: Nov 30, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/orhu-2016-0014

Keywords
predation, colony, Tisza

© 2016 Tibor Szép et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

A high level of nest predation observed in a large Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) colony

Published Online: Jan 25, 2017

Page range: 46 - 53

Received: Oct 26, 2016

Accepted: Nov 30, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/orhu-2016-0014

Keywordspredation, colony, Tisza

© 2016 Tibor Szép et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
predation, colony, Tisza