Positive update from the breeding areas
Newsletter 24/07/2020
This year, a total of 12 Northern Bald Ibises already returned to Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, and 7 of them have been seen simultaneously in the last weeks (see photo). These are far more birds then expected based on our previous experience. As already reported, this year, breeding did not take place in Überlingen, due to the management limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, in the two already established breeding colonies Kuchl in Salzburg and Burghausen in Bavaria, from this year’s breeding, we could register a very important number of young birds, which are now gradually becoming fledged. With a total of 27 fledged chicks in 9 nests, this year’s average is 3.0 fledged chicks per nest, an extremely good value of fertility. In our population, the average fertility of the last years is 2.2 fledged chicks per nest. This is far higher than the multi-year average of other Northern Bald Ibises populations (Morocco, Turkey, Spain) which lies between 1.0 and 1.5 fledged chicks per nest.
This year’s outstanding reproductive success has a particular importance as we were severely restricted in the bird’s management due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the birds in Kuchl have independently colonized the natural niches far off the ground, where they and their chicks are completely out of reach. Some colleagues persistently question the successes of our project by arguing that the reproductive success of our birds only relies on supplemental feeding and other management. This argument was already incorrect so far, but now we owe the consequent counter-evidence to the restrictions caused by the pandemic.
In fact, essential reasons for the great development of our population are the appropriate ecological conditions, specifically the availability of favourable feeding sites in the breeding areas. Extensive data collection is currently taking place on these areas in order to subsequently model the availability of suitable breeding habitats throughout the Alpine foothills.
Our population differs from all other populations also by its intact migratory behaviour. Only this allows the adults to use the abundant food habitats for raising young birds, as they have to leave it over winter. Migration also offers greater ecological flexibility in response to changing environmental conditions. This is of increasing importance, especially with regard to climate change.
Strengthened by the positive development in the breeding colonies, we submitted a third concept note for a second LIFE project on the 16th of July. This time with fundamental changes compared to the previous versions. We are optimistic!
Photo: Rainer Kittelmann was lucky enough to take this picture of seven Northern Bald Ibises in Überlingen at Lake Constance. Each of these seven birds migrated autonomously from Tuscany to the breeding area.
