Volume 23 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

The Hoopoe is a widespread species in Hungary with the strongest populations on the Great plains. The fact that in 2015 it became ‛The Bird of the Year’ in Hungary offers the possibility to summarise the information about the distribution, population size, dispersion, migration as well as the nature conservation status of the Hoopoe population breeding in Hungary. In the period of 1999–2014 the number of breeding pairs and trend of population level was estimated based on the Common Bird Census database. The population size was estimated as 13,500–17,500 pairs with a stable trend (slope=−1.3%, SE=2.5%) over 1999–2014. There is very limited information on migration from bird ringing, only 8 recoveries between 1928–1963 indicate, that the Hungarian population is migrating on a south-southeast direction in autumn, wintering in the eastern parts of the Sahel, possibly in Chad and Sudan and migrates back in spring following a loop migration pattern further to the east. The main conservation issues are agricultural intensification impacting feeding possibilities, lack of nesting cavities and hunting during migration.

Very little is known about Pied Flycatchers crossing the Carpathian Basin. We give a comprehensive picture about its migration based on the data collected during the past 26 years (1989–2014) at a stopover site in Hungary: (1) sex and age related phenological changes over the years, (2) sex, age and size dependent migration patterns during and (3) between migration periods, (4) sex and age composition in spring and in autumn and their change over years.

The timing of spring migration shifted to earlier dates in the case of males, while that of females did not change implying an increasing rate of protandry. In autumn the timing did not change, but juveniles leave the area earlier than adults. The average wing length increased during the past decades in spring in the case of both sexes. In autumn, wing length did not change significantly during the years, but it increased during the seasons in all age and gender groups.

The proportion of males is about 60% in spring and among juveniles in autumn, and it is around 39% in the adult group in autumn. The male ratio diminishes during spring, but it does not change during the autumn season. The average wing of adults is shorter in spring than in autumn. Based on this fact and the different sex ratios in the two seasons we may hypothesize that Pied Flycatchers are loop migrants on this area, and even the sexes of the same population take different routes.

In this paper, a complex morphological comparison of four Common Nightingale groups (Luscinia megarhynchos) is demonstrated. In total, 121 territorial nightingales were mist-netted and measured individually on four study areas called ‘Bódva’, ‘Felső-Tisza’, ‘Szatmár-Bereg’ and ‘Bátorliget’ in the North-Eastern part of Hungary in 2006–2013. To distinguish groups by morphology, Classification and Regression Trees (CART), Random Forest (RF) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) methods were used. Comparison of the four studied Common Nightingale groups shows substantial morphological differences in the length of the second, the third and the fourth primaries (P₂, P₃, P₄), in bill length (BL) and bill width (BW), while other characteristics showed greater similarities. Based on the results of all the applied classification methods, birds originated from Szatmár-Bereg were clearly distinguishable from the others. The differences in morphology can be explained by interspecific competition or phenotypic plasticity resulting from the change of ecological, environmental parameters. Our case study highlights the advantageous differences of the classification methods to distinguish groups with similar morphology and to choose important variables for classification. In conclusion, broad application of the classification methods RF and CART is highly recommended in comparative ecological studies.

Weekly counts of roosting cranes were conducted between 2006–2014 in all significant stopover sites of Common Cranes (Grus grus) in Hungary, as an extension of the survey programme performed in Hortobágy National Park since 1994. As a result, I detected consistently asymmetrical migration phenologies in Hortobágy, indicating a superposition of several migration waves. Cranes used nearly 60 roost sites in Hortobágy with the largest ones situated in extensive fishponds. In contrast, cranes migrating in Körös-Maros National Park started to overwinter regularly, increasingly roosting in dry wetlands. In Kiskunság cranes tended to stage for shorter periods than in Körös-Maros, with the largest flocks to be observed in Lake Fehér of Szeged fishponds and additionally in a number of alkali lakes. Cranes observed in the Borsodi Mezőség region are considered satellite flocks staging in Hortobágy, as shown by irregular fluctuations.

As a probable result of climatic variability, cranes migrating in Hortobágy have shown the advancement of first arrival dates and exhibited significant, positive relations with local mean monthly temperatures. Additionally, we detected a positive relationship between the Julian date of autumn migration peak and winter mean of the North-Atlantic Oscillation, indicating later autumn arrivals during warmer periods.

Because of the worldwide distribution of the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) and the easily way to find its pellets, it is often used to diet studies. To investigate the eco-geographical impact of mountainous areas on its diet, we conducted studies in the Jura, Alpes, Central and Pyrénées mountains and we also did pellet analysis from 8 sites in the Jura mountains. Analysis of the tooth and skull content of pellets allowed us to draw up two types of change in the diet of Tyto alba in correlation with mountain elevation. The first one concerns the Jura, Alpes and Central mountains, where the diversity of the diet declines with the increase in elevation. The second one concerns the Pyrénées mountains, where there is no change in the diversity of the diet, perhaps because of the higher diversity of small mammals caused by mediterranean influence. Thus, it seems that elevation cau ses a decrease in diet diversity of Tyto alba in continental mountains (Jura, Alpes and Central mountains) probably because of more homogeneous landscapes dedicated to grass production. However, in Mediterranean mountains (Pyrénées), a more diversified small mammal guild provides a constant level of diet diversity.

The Scops Owl (Otus scops) is one of the least studied owls in Europe and its loud and monotonous calls are not well documented. This paper summarises published alarm-like calls and presents data on daytime calling recorded in Lesencetomaj, Hungary between 9^th and 17^th September 2012. Calls were similar to the sound of an alarm on a reversing truck. The bird was most active around midday (11–13 hrs) and in the afternoons between 15–17 hrs. No calling occurred before 09.00 or after 19.15 o’clock. Weather affected the intensity of calls and particularly high autumn temperatures are suggested as a possible reason for this unusual activity.

Ornithofauna of the island of Žirje has not been explored yet. During an early and late survey in September of 2013 and 2014 altogether 50 bird species were recorded, 34 and 41 species was noted including both migratory and resident species in the two parts of the month, respectively. Nine species appeared only at the first half, while 16 species were registered only at the second half of the mouth. The results of this preliminary survey showed the obvious need for more intensive research of the island’s bird fauna, with special attention on nesting and wintering birds.

The author provides an osteological guide to songbirds, based on 11 skeletal parts of 51 genera, at the genus level for ornithologists studying owl pellets, paleontologists and archaezoologists. The mandible, the coracoid bone, the scapula, the humerus, the ulna, the carpometacarp, the first phalanx bone of the second finger, the femur, the tibiotars, the tarsometatars and the claw bone are presented.

The morphological characteristics and method of measurement of the examined skeletal parts and the photographs of the appropriate bones are illustrated on 52 plates and 17 figures. The measurement data are also provided in 11 size tables. For every discussed bone, 3-6 characteristics are chosen, and their codes consist of 3-6 letters. In case of overlaps, dimensions are the determining factors, and for the humerus and the ulna, the ensemble of the two bone end pairs can be used.

Two new species appeared in the Hungarian avifauna in 2014: the Spanish Sparrow and the Blyth’s Reed Warbler. One pair of Spanish Sparrow was breeding in Bácsborsód between June 13^th and July 31^st in the side of a stork nest. The Blyth’s Reed Warbler was trapped and ringed near Tömörd on August 15^th. With the observations of these species the number of bird species that have ever been proven to occur in Hungary has risen to 411.

Bird ringing datasets constitute possibly the largest source of temporal and spatial information on vertebrate taxa available on the globe. Initially, the method was invented to understand avian migration patterns. However, data deriving from bird ringing has been used in an array of other disciplines including population monitoring, changes in demography, conservation management and to study the effects of climate change to name a few. Despite the widespread usage and importance, there are no guidelines available specifically describing the practice of data management, preparation and analyses of ringing datasets. Here, we present the first of a series of comprehensive tutorials that may help fill this gap. We describe in detail and through a real-life example the intricacies of data cleaning and how to create a data table ready for analyses from raw ringing data in the R software environment. Moreover, we created and present here the R package; ringR, designed to carry out various specific tasks and plots related to bird ringing data. Most methods described here can also be applied to a wide range of capture-recapture type data based on individual marking, regardless to taxa or research question.