Nesting habitat suitability and breeding of Asian woollyneck (Ciconia episcopus) in Nepal

Ghimire, Prashant; Panthi, Saroj; Bhusal, Krishna Prasad; Low, Matthew; Pandey, Nabin; Ghimire, Roshan; Bist, Bhuwan Singh; Khanal, Santosh; Poudyal, Laxman Prasad

doi:10.1007/s43388-022-00104-2

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, the presence of larger trees in these landscapes, which are maintained by farmers, is essential for various waterbird species (Hilaluddin et al., 2003 ; Katuwal, Sundar, et al., 2022 ; Koju et al., 2019 ). Specifically, these large trees, characterized by their tall height, substantial diameter at breast height (DBH), and expansive canopy cover, facilitate the establishment of larger colony sizes (Clancy & Ford, 2011 ; Ghimire et al., 2022 ; Katuwal, Sundar, et al., 2022 ). This, in turn, significantly impacts the breeding performances of colonial waterbirds, including storks such as the Asian openbills ( Anastomus oscitans ; Mohapatra et al., 2019 ; Rajković, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding ecology of the Asian openbill in eastern Nepal: Larger trees support higher fledgling success

Tamang,

Katuwal,

Subba

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Colonial nesting waterbirds in agricultural landscapes have historically received limited research attention, especially in South Asia. For example, the Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans) is a colonial species that extensively utilizes agricultural landscapes, yet there is a notable lack of substantial studies despite increasing urbanization across these landscapes. We investigated the factors affecting the breeding ecology of Asian openbills in eastern Nepal. We used a grid‐based approach to locate stork colonies and monitored them throughout the breeding season from May to November for three consecutive years (2020–2022). Altogether, we observed a total of 67 active colonies, comprising 4020 active nests, which successfully fledged a total of 7566 chicks. Additionally, most of the colonies were located within areas of human settlements (40%), followed by community forests (33%) and agricultural land (27%). The Asian openbills primarily preferred large trees, such as Bombax ceiba (72%), for nesting. The mean height of nesting trees was approximately 4 m taller, the diameter at breast height was twice as large, and the canopy cover area was three times greater than that of non‐nesting trees. The canopy cover area of trees positively influenced the colony size, while colony size positively influenced the fledgling's success. Our study underscores the significance of large trees in providing sufficient space for accommodating a substantial number of openbill nests and fledglings. These findings have significant implications for conservation efforts to protect large trees along with wetlands and agricultural lands, as crucial measures to ensure the sustainable breeding of this nationally vulnerable species.

show abstract