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Bird crime is a serious problem in many countries around the world. This study focuses on the situation in Slovakia, summarising data on bird crime in the country between 2016 and 2022. Over the course of that period, 92 cases were recorded in 27 districts involving 33 animal species. At least 249 protected birds and 78 mammals fell victim to illegal activities, and 61 poisoned baits were discovered. Social value is the monetary value which state institutions use to quantify the damage incurred to wildlife. Slovak law determines whether an illegal act is an offence or a criminal act based on the value of the incurred damage. The total social value of all of the protected animals as a result of illegal activities was estimated at € 696,250. Intentional poisoning, typically using carbofuran, was the most common of illegal act identified in the recorded cases, followed by shooting and trapping. An analysis of the recorded cases of bird crime was also used to assess the risk in each of Slovakia’s districts in relation to landscape structure variables. The percentage share of arable land was found to be a reliable predictor of bird crime, regardless of whether the birds had been poisoned or shot. These findings can help to develop better preventive inspections to detect bird crime incidents. We also recommended several management measures to help tackle bird crime more quickly and effectively.

Table 1 in original paper (Slobodník et al. 2017, Slovak Raptor Journal 11: 83–89) was published with incorrect data. Correct version is published here.

The Red Kite Milvus milvus is endemic to the western Palearctic. While the largest breeding population is in Germany, the population density decreases substantially from central to eastern Europe. In 2015, we tagged two young Red Kite females with telemetry loggers in an area with very low kite density in the northeastern part of Slovakia. One of these females failed to breed over her seven-year lifespan. After leaving her post-fledging area she never returned. During her first two years, she undertook two exploratory flights to Croatia and Romania, but remained exclusively in southwestern Slovakia and northeastern Hungary over the rest of her life. Throughout this period, she always wintered alone and no other Red Kites were ever observed in her wintering grounds. During the pre-breeding period (March–April), she remained outside the area that held breeding kite pairs, and there were no signs of breeding based on her positions during the breeding season. This seven-year-old is the oldest Red Kite floater recorded to date. Owing to the low density of Red Kite breeding pairs in Slovakia and Hungary, it is likely that she was unable to find a suitable mate prior to the beginning of the breeding season. In such areas, the role of floaters may prove critical for the persistence of low-density Red Kite populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• Habitat-associated breeding performance of Clanga pomarina on five scales studied. • Home-range and landscape scale predictors were the most important. • Logging operations pose a grave threat to species' reproduction. • Species shows strong preference or even specialization for major forest ecotones. • Close-to-nature forestry is unlikely to comply with the species' conservation goals. Habitat loss and fragmentation along with altered disturbance regimes cause raptor population declines, but processes, rates and interactions are seldom known. Knowledge gaps remain mainly in large forest-dwelling raptors that use habitats on several spatial scales. Our study focusses on breeding habitats and habitat-associated breeding performance of the Lesser Spotted Eagle ("eagle") across five spatial scales in Laborecká vrchovina Mts (East Carpathians, Slovakia) during 2011–2016. We calculated two relative measures of breeding performance (breeding attempt index, BAI; nest productivity index, NPI) and related them to habitat characteristics sampled on the nest-platform, nest-tree, nest-site, home-range and landscape scale. We found that eagle's breeding performance was best explained by predictors on the home-range and landscape scale. BAI and NPI strongly and consistently increased with increasing distance of nest to the nearest felling site and with occurrence of the nest site on lower slope landforms. Former finding supported ample evidence that logging operations pose a grave threat to eagle's reproduction, while the latter hinted at its strong preference or even specialization for forest edges, for notably old regional ecotones between montane forests and submontane non-forest formations show lower slope topography. On the nest-site scale, nest productivity (NPI) significantly and strongly increased with increasing percentage of Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea) and decreased with cosine of slope aspect in response to more open and accessible canopy structure resulting from oak appearance in beech-dominated forests and to contrasts in solar radiation, shade and similar north–south effects. On the nest-platform and nest-tree scale breeding performance marginally significantly increased with increasing relative nest height above ground and decreased in nests of natural origin (in BAI). It pointed to unrecognized relevance of relative nest height that may link nest-tree with nest-site scale and reflect a trade-off between nest accessibility and nest protective cover, and to greater nest placement diversity with possible greater vulnerability of natural nests. Differences in breeding performance measured by BAI vs NPI indicated that certain selection pressures may vary significantly during the breeding cycle, e.g., early vs late breeding failures and subsequent learning from negative experience. We recommended several management actions by our results, particularly to advance systematic eagle monitoring, to address multiple scales of its habitat use according to their relative importance, to increase the width of protection zones around nests and adopt new or strengthen existing landscape-scale measures and to follow sustainable forestry as a part of integrated landscape management instead of close-to-nature forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several estimates of the lesser spotted eagle breeding population in Slovakia were published in 1955-2002. In this study we estimate the breeding population of the lesser spotted eagle by 1997 and 2014. By 1997, the estimated size of the breeding population was 762 pairs. In 2002 an estimate of the population size by 2000 was published at 800-900 pairs. By 2014 we estimate the breeding population of the lesser spotted eagle in Slovakia at 600-800 pairs and the declining population trend in 2000-2013 at -23%. Our estimate is supported by the extrapolation from data obtained in 2011-2013 in eight selected Special Protection Areas (SPAs) within a framework of the project LIFE09 NAT/SK/000396 'Conservation of Aquila pomarina in Slovakia'. When analyzing abundance, density and trends in the species' entire breeding range in Slovakia we first summarised the numbers of breeding pairs, their densities and trends within the selected SPAs and then explored the differences among them using ANOVA and cluster analysis. For the eight SPAs as a whole (n = 8) or partitioned by a grid of the Databank of Slovak Fauna (n = 119 squares) we calculated the interval estimates of the mean number of pairs (unweighted and weighted arithmetic means and medians). By summarising these estimates and extrapolating to the species' entire breeding range in Slovakia (c. 28,935 km2) while increasing the sample size (n = 8, 9, 11 and 1 2 SPAs), the size estimates stabilise at a level of 670 (mean with 95%LCL = 507 and 95%UCL = 834) or 765 (median with 95%LCL = 393 and 95%UCL = 841 ) breeding pairs. The most reliable estimate of the breeding population of the lesser spotted eagle in Slovakia by 2014 is a median of 765 pairs with a 95% confidence interval from 393 to 841 pairs and an interquartile range from 418 to 835 pairs. We estimate a 23% decrease in the breeding population during 2000-2013, i.e. a small decrease -1 (20-49%). Three methods of estimating were used: 1 ) comparing the numbers of pairs in the selected SPAs between 2000 and 2014 - indicates a decrease of -26%; 2) comparing the numbers of pairs from long-term monitoring in five areas (orographic units Vihorlatské vrchy Mts, Laborecká vrchovina Upland, Volovské vrchy Mts, Orava and Horné Ponitrie Regions) by the 1990s and 2014 - indicates a decrease of -20%; 3) comparing the numbers of pairs by 1997 in selected areas within the boundaries of the current SPAs with the number of pairs in the same SPAs by 2014 - indicates a decrease of -23%. In the eight selected SPAs the estimated decline was even more pronounced, reaching a median trend of -35% in the 95% confidence interval from -54% to +25%. The estimate by 1997 fits in with an increasing trend of published breeding population estimates in Slovakia during 1955-2002. The estimate by 2014 is lower than the estimate by 2000, and for the first time ever a declining trend is recorded. By 2014 the breeding grounds of the lesser spotted eagle in Slovakia embrace an area of c. 28,935 km2. Taking an estimate of 600-800 breeding pairs, the mean density varies between 2.1-2.8 pairs.100 km-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011-201 4 monitoring of the lesser spotted eagle (Aquila pomarina) breeding population was conducted in eight special protection areas in Slovakia. From a total of 272 successful breeding attempts by 1 49 breeding pairs during 4 breeding seasons 277 young birds were fledged. The average reproductive success ratio was thus 0.51 juv./pair present, 0.69 juv./breeding pair and 1 .37 juv./1 00 km2. In the surveyed period a total of 1 51 protection zones were established around the nests in 11 9 breeding territories, which provided protection for 1 7% of the breeding population of the lesser spotted eagle in Slovakia. By testing the effectiveness of protection zones it was determined that in nests with an established protection zone the probability of successful raising of young is higher in comparison with nests without such a zone. The probability that breeding will be successful in the nests of breeding pairs without a protection zone was 48.1% (95% confidence intervals (CIs): 37.4-59.0%), and in nests with a protection zone 64.8% (95% CIs: 59.8-69.6%). Among the five most frequent nest tree species used by A. pomarina in Slovakia for breeding are Picea abies 61 × (28.4%), Pinus sylvestris 45× (20.9%), Quercus sp. 36× (1 6.7%), Fagus sylvatica 25× (11 .6%) and Abies alba 1 8× (8.4%). Among the rarer nest tree species used are Larix decidua 1 2× (5.6%) and Alnus glutinosa 3× (1 .4%), while a further 11 species of nest trees did not achieve even 1%. The highest number of nest trees (n = 21 5), i.e. 34 nests (1 5.8%), was found in the altitude range of 401-450 m a.s.l. and 29 nests (1 3.5%) at 351-400 m a.s.l. Other altitude zones were all below the 1 0% mark. A total of 54% of nests found (11 6 nests) are located in the altitude zone of 301-600 m a.s.l., and 71 nests (33%) in the zone 600-900 m a.s.l. The lowest situated nest was at an altitude of 1 50 m and the highest at 950 m; the average was 595.01 m a.s.l. The highest number of nests (n = 209) were located on trees in a range 1 5.1-20.0 m above the ground (n = 92, 44%), while the lowest nest found was at a height of 5 m and the highest at 30 m above the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]