The role of ponds as feeding habitat for an umbrella species: best management practices for the black stork Ciconia nigra in Spain

Abstract

To establish recommendations for wetland management that promote wildlife diversity in Mediterranean habitats we examined the factors that determine feeding habitat selection by the black stork Ciconia nigra in ponds. The black stork is considered an umbrella species because it is threatened, requires large foraging ranges in priority areas, is selective in its choice of diet and nesting sites, and inhabits a characteristic biological community with endemic and threatened taxa. Eighty-five ponds were monitored in central and western Spain to detect the stork feeding. At the same time, pond variables that could affect black stork feeding preferences were periodically evaluated. Generalized linear mixed models were used to analyse principal components obtained from groups of factors related to structural, location and ecological conditions. The black stork selects ponds distant from roads, with a large surface area, high water level, shallow shores, low turbidity, few traces of wild ungulates on the shores, a high diversity of fish and amphibian species, and a vegetated perimeter, in flat and open areas. Potential factors affecting feeding behaviour are discussed. We suggest measures for pond construction and management that could favour this species in particular and biodiversity in general in the Mediterranean environment.

Geographical and environmental factors affecting the distribution of wintering black storks Ciconia nigra in the Iberian Peninsula

“…We included mean temperature of the coldest quarter (bio11; Worldclim 1.4 <http://worldclim.org/>; Hijmans et al ) and winter solar radiation (SUNRAD), which is related to the primary productivity and thermoregulatory requirements of birds (Lennon et al , Carrascal et al ). In addition the precipitation of the wettest quarter (bio16) and the precipitation of the coldest quarter (BIO19) was included due to their potential importance to water‐dependent species (Moreno‐Opo et al ). We included ALTITUDE, a surrogate of winter climatic harshness usually related to persistent snow cover in the Iberian Peninsula (Tellería et al ) and land cover (CORINE; ver.…”

Migration and winter distribution of Iberian and central European black storks Ciconia nigra moving to Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar: a comparative study

“…In September, banks of lowland rivers and pools of seasonal creeks start to sink as drought advances throughout the winter (Zwarts et al 2009). As in the case of summer pools in seasonal Mediterranean rivers in Spain, sinking pools offer very suitable circumstances for the capture of fishes (Moreno‐Opo et al 2011). The finding that populations leave at different times but arrive together seems to provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that timing is related to resource abundance which can be checked in relation to environmental conditions in future research.…”

“…However, conditions also appear to be adequate in the dry south‐western sector of the Iberian Peninsula, where many European storks converge with local individuals to prepare for the flight over Africa (Chevallier et al 2011). Despite the Mediterranean summer drought, the region has plenty of intermittent rivers and man‐made ponds in wooded pasturelands (‘dehesas’) that serve as suitable and widespread feeding sites for black storks (Moreno‐Opo et al 2011). After crossing Gibraltar, neither population showed differences in the way they moved over Africa despite that slow movements have been reported for some juveniles moving over Europe (Hourlay 2003, Jadoul et al 2003b).…”

“…We also addressed the problem that most of the satellite‐tagged Spanish birds were juveniles and all central European individuals were adults. It is known that both adults and juveniles migrate together (Bobek et al 2008) and mix in stopover and wintering areas (Parkes and Torés 2003, Van Den Bossche 2003, Moreno‐Opo et al 2011) so we presumed a minimal effect of this age‐skewed distribution of populations. However, to deal with this age difference between the study populations we looked for all available information to explore the migratory behaviour of central European juveniles moving across the Strait of Gibraltar (see below).…”

Use of the foraging area by captive bred oriental storks (Ciconia boyciana) in a closed semi natural paddy field

“…Furthermore, the abundance of birds that used rice paddy fields for foraging was found to vary with a flooding regime depending upon the agricultural schedules, such as irrigating the rice paddy fields during the spring and summer and draining them prior to harvesting in fall and through winter. To date, many studies have investigated the factors affecting the habitat use of bird species (Dorfman et al 2001, Amano et al 2008, Moreno-Opo et al 2011 and have also examined the distribution of fish in the rice-paddy fields (Naruse and Oishi 1996, Hata 2002, Fujimoto et al 2008, Kano et al 2010, Katayama et al 2011. However, the information necessary for understanding the relationships between the abundance of aquatic animals and avian wetland foragers is lacking with regards to habitat management.…”