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Forest raptor nest selection traits in Mediterranean forest (Maamora, North Africa): conservation implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2023

Amalia Segura Open the ORCID record for Amalia Segura [Opens in a new window]  and
Pelayo Acevedo
Amalia Segura*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain
Pelayo Acevedo
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain
*
Corresponding author: Amalia Segura; email: amaliasegura@gmail.com
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Summary

Forest raptor nest-site selection is mostly influenced by the quality of the habitat, food resources, and competition. Here, we identified common targets of trees selected as breeding sites and differences in selection traits, i.e. prey availability and intra- and interspecific competition, among Booted Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Black Kite, and Common Kestrel in a Mediterranean Cork Oak forest (private protected reserve of 25 km2). Using generalised linear mixed models we developed species-specific models describing nesting habitat selection. We tested the overlap in nesting habitat selection among species using environmental principal component analysis. The densities of forest raptor breeding pairs were high (3.1 pairs/km2) and the distance between occupied territories was short, strongly connected with food availability and competition. The results showed that all the species, with the exception of Common Kestrel, selected for nesting areas characterised by higher conspecific distance, highlighting the importance of conspecific competition. Booted Eagle and Black Kite selected areas with a high abundance of rabbits. The height of the nesting tree, the size and distance between surrounding trees, and the scrub cover were significant habitat characteristics for Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard. Indeed, the environmental analyses showed a moderate nest site overlap between Black Kite and both Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard, and a high overlap between Common Kestrel and both Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard. Our study improves knowledge of the habitat requirements for nest selection and the potential competitive interactions between these raptor species in Mediterranean forests, and highlights the need for implementation of habitat management and conservation strategies.

Keywords

Conspecific competitionCork Oak forestMoroccorabbit densitytree nest characteristics
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 33 , 2023 , e72
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

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