Preliminary data on the diet composition and nesting behaviour of the Long‑legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) in south‑western Romania

By

Birău, Alexandru Cătălin
Tudor, Marian
Murariu, Dumitru
Drăghici, Andreea-Cătălina

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023-12-31

Original Publication

Travaux du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle "Grigore Antipa"

Volume

66

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

337--354

Subjects

breeding behaviour , Diet , foraging , Long‑legged Buzzard , south‑western Romania , trail camera

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

București, România Muzeul Național de Istorie Naturală "Grigore Antipa" -2009

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/travaux.66.e115815

 

Abstract

The study of a nest of Long‑legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus was carried out using a trail camera and is one piece of a completely unknown jigsaw puzzle of diet and nesting behaviour in Romania. With a hatching success of 75%, we identified 3 hatched chicks from the 4 eggs. During the 10 days of monitoring, 34 preys brought to the nest were identified, with a peak of activity between 11:00–17:00 and a preference for the European Ground Squirrel Spermophilus citellus (61.76%). This was followed by the Domestic Pigeon Columba livia f. domestica and the Common Wood Pigeon C. palumbus (5.88%), and amphibians were represented by the European Green Toad Bufotes viridis (2.94%). There were 10 unidentified prey species (29.41%). We identified the presence of plastic and textile fibres in the nest and the risk of chick suffocation. We also improved our understanding of interspecific interactions and our observations highlighted the mutualism between the three species in the nest: Spanish Sparrow, House Sparrow and LLB. The removal of solitary trees from the agricultural landscape is a major threat in south‑western Romania, affecting the breeding population of the LLB, which, as in our case, nests on this type of support.