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Food wastes are among the factors with the greatest effects on animal populations. The white stork is among bird species that clearly profit from feeding at landfills, at least in Western Europe and North Africa. However, the rate and the consequences of this feeding are still unknown in the Central-Eastern European population, which differs from the western population not only in terms of migration routes but also in the greater availability of suitable natural breeding habitats due to less intensified agriculture. The aim of the study was to describe the use of landfills and its consequences in terms of probability of nest occupation and breeding effects in different regions of Poland. Although the most important factors influencing nest-site selection and breeding effect are still habitat quality and weather conditions, distance to landfills is important in selection of nest sites. White storks use landfills most intensively late in the breeding season, independently of the density of breeding pairs. The results suggest that the use of landfills is not currently essential in the Central-Eastern European population of the white stork, does not affect breeding effect, and may be more frequent in non-breeders. However, this phenomenon is still developing and requires continuous monitoring.

Capsule: The Crested Lark Galerida cristata as an example of a species which selects habitats which have undergone agricultural intensification. Aims: To describe habitat preferences of the Crested...

Choosing an appropriate nest site is essential for successful breeding. Changes in land use cause populations of many species to decline although some species adapt to anthropogenic changes. The white stork Ciconia ciconia commonly uses artificial nest sites. Recently, white storks from Western Europe have been using landfills as feeding sites; the beginnings of this process are being observed in Central-Eastern Europe. The study aimed to determine factors influencing the probability of nest occupation and breeding effect in a Central-Eastern European population of white storks. We used long-term data from Western Poland on breeding effect, nest occupation, the structure supporting the nest, the proximity of the nearest landfills, landfill area, and land cover. The probability of nest occupation was significantly dependent on habitat quality (based on the share of the preferred type of land cover), the structure supporting the nest, and landfill proximity within a specific year. The breeding effect was influenced by habitat quality and nesting structure. We demonstrate that the type of nesting structure is an important factor influencing both the probability of nest reoccupation and breeding effect. However, the significance of landfills appears to be growing, and in recent years, storks prefer occupying nests closer to landfills, which may have significant consequences for the population of the white stork. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-019-06639-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Citizen science has emerged as an important tool in biology, ecology, and conservation studies. In this paper, we examined YouTube (YT) videos featuring the behaviour of red (Sciurus vulgaris) and grey (Sciurus carolinensis) squirrels in Europe, in both urban and forest habitats. Our study shows that specific behaviours of these squirrels, such as aggression, grooming and calling, have frequently been recorded on YT videos. The present paper uses this open data for the first time to compare differences between the frequency of some types of behaviour in two habitats. Based on detrended correspondence analysis, we show a significant difference in sets of behaviours between two squirrel species. Our investigation show that YT can be a source for monitoring the behaviour of wild species, especially in urban habitats, thus affording insights into the species plasticity of urban individuals. YT, as part of citizen science, is a potential source of information in behavioural ecology.

Pollinating insects are under high human pressure due to agricultural intensification and urbanization. Although many research and conservation projects have been applied worldwide, there is still a need for a comprehensive approach that meets local conditioning and capabilities. This paper investigated the composition, abundance, richness, alpha, beta, and gamma-diversity of pollinators between unused railway embankments and semi-natural grasslands. On 50 study sites (25 sites in unused railways and 25 their reference on grasslands), we collected data on the abundance, species richness and species diversity of bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. We conducted five samplings yearly (April–September) for two years, 2017–2018. To assess differences in abundance, species richness, alpha and beta diversity of pollinators between unused railways and controls, we used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). To compare the composition of pollinator species, we applied non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). Abundance, species richness, and Shannon-Wiener diversity index of all three groups of pollinators were significantly higher in unused railway lines than in control grasslands. Pollinator communities were more constant in unused railway lines than in grasslands. The NMDS analysis highlighted the importance of these structures for bee, butterfly and hoverfly communities, which were a subset of grassland species, but were more abundant. We indicated the highest total taxonomic beta-diversity for bees, butterflies, and hoverflies and species turnover for bees and butterflies in control grassland compared with unused railway lines. The taxonomical nestedness was significantly higher in unused railways lines for bees and butterflies than in control grasslands. In the case of hoverflies, we did not found any significant differences in species turnover and nestedness. Unused railway lines may act as a conservation tool for pollinator communities in intensively managed farmland and complement the declining semi-natural habitats.

Due to their falling cost, unmanned aerial vehicles, often called drones, are increasingly used as a tool in bird research and conservation. However, behavioural responses of birds to flying drones are still not well understood, for example do birds recognize drones as predators, as benign, or as neutral elements? How do they react to drones? We answered these questions and described the behaviour of birds toward drones during a study with White Stork Ciconia ciconia in north-eastern Poland. We used a small quadrocopter and noted flight initiation distances (FID) of adult storks on nests and behavioural reactions of their young towards drones. During nest inspections by drone, adult White Storks showed FIDs of between 1 and 20 metres, but occasionally did not even flush during drone approaches. FID was mainly affected by breeding stage, but some storks even ignored the working drones close to the nest (14%). Birds that escaped from the nest at the egg stage, returned to it on average within 23 seconds. The most common reactions of young White Storks to the drone were scaring (42%) and akinesis (34%). The rapid return of adult storks to the nest, even when scared away, shows that drones are not an highly invasive tool for examining their breeding outputs, even during the most sensitive period, i.e. egg stage. We believe that drones will soon become an important and common tool in research of the White Stork for determining breeding success and examining nests for hazards, e.g. waste, strings or electrocution risk. Our research can be a useful guide to researchers for predicting stork behaviour during inspection of their nests in the near future.

Ecologists and wildlife managers require useful tools to reduce the human-wildlife conflict. So far, little attention has been paid to the damage caused by avian nesting on man-made structures. We weighed 145 occupied nests of the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in eastern Poland and applied general linear models (multiple regressions) to predict a nest’s mass from its measurements. Nests measured showed large variation in size (mean ± SD = 140.9 ± 23.7 cm, range: 80–230 cm in diameter; 59.7 ± 27.8 cm, range: 10–140 cm in height) and weighted 70–1348 kg (mean ± SD: 378 ± 251 kg). We set up a free online calculator which uses model equations to estimate nest masses given nest dimensions. Apart from the management application, it can be used in ecological research, e.g. nests tracked over subsequent seasons, and even into account weather data to assess the effect of climate change.

Urban green areas are an important part of the cities that provide ‘novel ecosystem’ for the preservation of many plants and animals. Pollinators are the one animal group that are well adapted to live in the urban environment. However, not all green areas in the city affect pollinators equally, which is associated with management practices, vegetation composition, and distance to the city center. Our study was aimed to assess how environmental features and vegetation composition shape the pollinator communities in different habitats in the city. Forty seven squares in the three different urban green areas (i.e., urban grassland, housing estate, urban park) were established in the Poznan city, where the bees, butterflies, and hoverflies were surveyed. On each square, the vegetation and environmental features were estimated. Plant communities’ composition was different between three habitats, which affected pollinators’ compositions in the city. The NMDS analyses showed that in the case of bees and butterflies, plant height and share of built-up area explain a high percentage of the variance. Additionally, the Plantaginaceae, Boraginaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Ranunculaceae and Caryophyllaceae families had a significant impact on pollinators. Plants form these families are characterized by the flowers from opened to closed corollas (flag-, bell-, gullet-, tube-, capitulum-shaped), which provide access to nectar and pollen for different pollinator groups. This study demonstrated that both environmental and vegetation features had a significant effect on pollinators species communities’ composition, which is indirectly relate to management practices of these greenery areas. The management policy of greenery landscapes in the city, especially in more transformed areas like urban parks and housing estates, must consider restricted implement actions leading to a reduction of the number of mowing or/and leaving un-mowed foraging patches for pollinators.

Fascination with animals and their behaviour is one the most prominent patterns persisting in all human cultures. During the last decades, however, technological development and public access to the Internet have increased the speed and the extent of information sharing at an unprecedented rate, in some cases even challenging the traditional methods used in science. In order to understand the extent of this influence, we focused on the behaviour of shrikes. Shrikes are an enigmatic group of songbirds with a unique behaviour of impaling prey. We employed an extensive Internet search on YouTube (YT), a very popular and increasingly important source of information worldwide, for videos recording shrikes. Our analyses revealed that the number of shrike videos on YT is strongly positively correlated with classical knowledge on shrikes from books and scientific articles. Our results also suggest that in some cases YT may provide an alternative source of information on shrike ecology and behaviour. YT videos may thus provide new insights into the study of certain species or subjects and help identify gaps in ecological studies, especially in poorly studied species. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00114-017-1470-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Urban areas attract birds during the winter when cities provide a predictable source of food and relatively stable weather conditions. However, many other factors determine the occurrence of birds in cities. This study analysed the relationship between corvids wintering in the city of Poznań, in western Poland and habitat features. Each of 32 research site was investigated three times. The most abundant species was the rook (mean = 17.4 individuals/site); the most frequent was the Eurasian magpie (88% of all sites). To determine variables that influence the abundance of birds, a set of generalised linear models was created, with model averaging being selected for each species. The abundance of hooded crows was positively influenced by surface of parks, water and by the length of tram tracks. The number of rooks was positively linked with the number of walnut trees, garbage cans and the surface of the water and negatively linked with the length of watercourses. Jackdaw was affected positively by the number of garbage cans, the surface of the water and negatively by the cover of trees. The number of magpies was associated with the number of walnut trees, garbage cans and negatively influenced by the surface of trees. None of the investigated habitat variables significantly affected the abundance of European jay. We also found a positive correlation between the abundances of hooded crow, rook, jackdaw and magpie. The results indicate that corvids wintering in urban ecosystems exhibit selectivity toward specific habitat features and that preferences differ among the studied species.