“…Basing our study on species with very different degrees of ecological specialization, we hoped to assess the effects of the aforementioned factors on two definitely different biological models; despite the fact that they are rather closely related one to each other and have similar size, they have different niche breadths (Cramp & Simmons 1980, Pedrini et al 2005) and could potentially show somewhat different responses to variation in habitat, area, isolation and presence of potentially interacting species. Water Rail is a typical inhabitant of well-vegetated wetlands, usually requiring flooded reed-beds, some clearings with open water, and access to shallow water or muddy surfaces (Jenkins & Ormerod 2002); it can be considered a wetland specialist, unable to occupy successfully other habitats in the landscape matrix within which wetlands are interspersed. Moorhen is a generalist species, inhabiting all kind of habitats providing access to water and patches of vegetation (Cramp & Simmons 1980, Brambilla & Rubolini 2003, and also occurs outside 'true' wetland sites (Pedrini et al 2005).…”