Volume 22 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Great Bustards are still vulnerable to agricultural intensification, power line collision, and other human-induced landscape changes. Their world population is estimated to be between44,000 and 57,000 individuals, showing a stable demographic trend at present in the Iberian peninsula, its mainstronghold, but uncertain trends in Russia and China, and alarming declines in Iran and Morocco, where it willgo extinct if urgent protection measures are not taken immediately. Our knowledge of the behaviour and ecologyof this species has increased considerably over the last three decades, allowing us to control the major threatsand secure its conservation in an appropriately managed cereal farmland. This species became 'The Bird of the Year' in Hungary in 2014.

At the turn of the 19-20th centuries, the Great Bustard population of the Kisalföld (Little Hungarian Plain) numbered 4000 specimens. By 1990, only about 100 individuals remained in the Hungarian and Austrian territories. Of the many possible negative factors of current times, the greatest pressure on the Great Bustard population stems from unfavorable crop structures, extensive use of intensive agricultural technologies and predation. During the past decades, we have seen a shift in nesting place locations from natural-like habitats to agrar-type habitats. This change may be explained by the more favorable structure and microclimate of this latter habitat type paralleled with greater food source availability. In order to escape this ecological trap, we have to engage in active conflict resolution that provides protection the region's Bustard population.

For this very reason, the MOSON Project was founded in 1992 at the northern part of the Mosoni-Plain in the territory of Lajta-Hanság Co. Later, several Austrian regions joined the project. On these territories, out of the above mentioned 100 specimens, only 20 birds lived at the time. As the result of active habitat management of Great Bustards and coexisting small game species (mostly due to the influence of set-aside areas) as well as effective predator control (especially the Red Fox) resulted in an increase of the Great Bustard population. By the end of the 1990's, the population grew to 120-130 individuals which number was limited by the carrying capacity of this territory. Consequently, the species continued to reoccupy new regions in the Hungarian and Austrian territories. These days, the number of Great Bustards in these protected regions is estimated to be 400 individuals.

In 1998, the Mosoni-plain was given IBA (HU-001) status, and in 2004, the region was protected under the Natura 2000 EU nature conservation network.

In this study, we identified the key mortality causes of eggs, juveniles and adults of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) and quantified the relative importance of those, based on systematic data collection that have been carried out during the period between 2005 and 2014 at the Upper-Kiskunság region in Central Hungary. Rate of mortality regarding juveniles and adults was 39.71% caused by anthropogenic factors. Within the anthropogenic factors leading to mortality, collision was represented by 81.48% of fatalities, whereas mowing/hay making represented by 18.52%. Hay making/mowing was the factor leading to unsuccessful breeding attempt with the strongest negative effect on the breeding success of the investigated population of the Great Bustard, as it was represented by 50.96% of all known mortality cases. Chemical treatment had the factor with the second strongest effect, as it was represented by 12.33% of all known mortality cases. The rate of unsuccessful breeding (hatching) caused by particular activities (hay making/mowing, tillage, harvesting) varied between 68.42% and 75.00%. It was the disturbance by passers-by which led to the highest portion of unsuccessful breeding with 83.33% unsuccessful nests.

Our study was conducted in the Upper-Kiskunság region, Central Hungary, which hosts the largest Pannonian population of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda). The influence of the presence of aboveground medium voltage power lines on displaying site selection of Great Bustard males was investigated. The results revealed that displaying males totally reject the sites located within 350-400 m or closer to medium voltage power lines as displaying sites and show relative rejection towards potential displaying sites located at a distance between 500 and 1000 m far from power lines. Surprisingly, the overall negative effects influence much larger part of the potential displaying grounds, up to the distance to 3500 m from power lines. It can be declared that power lines reduce the extent of suitable displaying sites of the Great Bustards in the Upper-Kiskunság region. Accordingly, installation of new above-ground power lines (and other kind of wires, such as high voltage power lines, optical cables etc.) would further reduce the extent of suitable displaying sites.

This study was carried out in Hungary, in an old, unmanaged, riparian poplar-willow forest, where two invasive tree species, the green ash and the boxelder maple are presented and reproduce more effectively therefore are more abundant than the native species in the study area. There are also invasive hybrid wild grapes to be found. These invasive plants cause widespread problems in floodplain forests in Central Europe. We studied Great-spotted and Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers. We investigated the following questions: Which tree species are preferred by the foraging birds? How are the foraging birds distributed spatially between the microhabitats? Are there any differences in terms of foraging niche utilization between the two studied species? We gathered our data through weekly standard observations throughout two whole years. Based on our findings we could determine that both species preferred the less abundant native trees rather than the invasive ash and maple trees, though Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers preferred hybrid wild grapes the most. Great-spotted Woodpeckers preferred the middle heights of the trees, they also moved mainly on trunks. Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers used the thinnest branches in the canopy. Based on our results we predict that the decrease of the native tree species may create a suboptimal habitat compared to the current situation. As the studied species are the major cavity excavators, the above mentioned changes will probably have significant effects on numerous cavity dependent species.

The author summarizes the knowledge of fossil and subfossil bird life from the Carpathian Basin, of all geological ages, site by site. After a historical overview, he presents the Mesozoic, Tertiary and Quaternary bird fauna, based on a holistic reference material consisting of 196 titles indicated in the bibliography, including papers in English (64), Hungarian (50), German (46), Romanian (26), Croatian (9) and Polish (1) languages. The text is supplemented with maps of fossiliferous sites from different ages and a list from 341 paleontological and archaeological sites on species of the Carpathian Basin, respectively. The number of taxa reaches 845, including 189 extinct taxa (two orders, four families, nine genera - five ichnotaxa of which (154 species, five ichnotaxa and 10 subspecies) were described from the Carpathian Basin, primarily. Most significant records include the Mesozoic taxa (Eurolimnornis, Palaeocursornis, Elopteryx), the new Neogene songbirds species and the presence of predecessors of recent European grouses, Bustards and Corvidae species from the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene in the Carpathian Basin.

Even if intraspecific conflict is a well-known behaviour in birds, intraspecific killing among passerines is very rare in the literature. Cases of intraspecific predation among passerines constitute a very small percentage of published reports, and many of the cases are based on circumstantial evidence. In March 2013, we witnessed a group of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) kill a conspecific male adult in the village of Gonsans (France, Doubs department). During the reproductive season three explanations of others studies (lack of food, weak condition and territorial behaviour during) could be relevant in our case. In conclusion, it appears that our observation is a very rare one and the second one for the House Sparrow.

Three new species appeared in the Hungarian avifauna in 2013: the Black-throated Thrush, the Booted Warbler and the Caspian Plover. A Black-throated Thrush stayed at the Nagyerdõ, Debrecen between the 1st and 12th of March. A Booted Warbler was trapped and ringed at the Hortobágy Fishpond on the 25th of May. Finally, a Caspian Plover was observed near Kardoskút on the 15-17th of November. Thus the number of bird species known to occur in Hungary has increased to 409.