Drainage of wetlands and agricultural intensification has resulted in serious biodiversity loss in Europe, not least in grasslands. Consequently, many meadow birds have drastically declined, and the habitats they select for breeding currently rely on land management. However, the selection of habitats maintained by agriculture may contribute to reduced fitness and thus remain maladaptive for individuals, which makes conservation challenging. An understanding of the relationships between species’ habitat selection, food supply and land management in the context of species’ behaviour is therefore crucial for conservation. Lowland populations of Great Snipe Gallinago media are currently declining at a moderate rate, causing a conservation concern. We examined the daytime site selection (assumed as foraging sites) and food supply of radiotracked Great Snipe males breeding on a floodplain in NE Poland. Foraging sites were classified at micro‐ and macro‐scale levels using the logistic regression in a use–availability design. On the micro‐scale level, males selected moderate sward height and density, and a large amount of bare ground patches, and the importance of these increased as the breeding season progressed. On the macro‐scale level, these conditions were associated with (1) meadows mown twice per season and grazed thereafter (associated with the most abundant food resources – earthworms) and (2) extensively managed pastures, suggesting the importance of grazing. Abandoned or late‐mown meadows under agri‐environmental schemes (AES) were avoided by foraging males. However, parcels with delayed mowing offer safe breeding sites for females nesting close to leks, unlike land‐use types preferred by foraging males, which may act as an ecological trap. Effective conservation of Great Snipes on floodplain meadows requires precisely targeted AES schemes that will provide a mosaic of intensive and extensive land‐use patches in the vicinity of identified leks.

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The winter raptor community was studied in river valleys of North Eastern Poland during the winters of 2000- 2010. Via transect counts method we showed the potential drivers of raptor abundance, and co-occurrence patterns. We analysed the influence of weather and habitat factors along on the single species abundance and diversity of the raptor assemblage. We found that higher temperatures corresponded with higher occurrence of the common buzzard Buteo buteo, rough-legged buzzard Buteo lagopus, Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, hen harrier Circus cyaneus and lower of the common kestrel Falco tinnunculus. When considering the effect of each habitat variable on the whole raptor assemblage, the relative proportion of urban areas to pasture had the most distinct effect on species abundance and diversity. Most of species were found to be less abundant in areas with a high proportion of urban areas, while some, like the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis, occurred more often on such areas. We observed that the difference in the number of these species could be explained mainly by the different habitat requirements due to individual food preferences and flexibility of migration strategies

Most long-distance migrating passerines that breed in Europe spend their winters in Africa, with only a few species migrating eastward to spend the non-breeding period in South Asia. The use of the Indo-European flyway is rare and has been poorly studied so far. However, it is extremely interesting as within that system we are currently witnessing a recent range expansion of European breeding long distance migrants and thus the lengthening of migration routes. It may therefore conceal a unique migratory strategies and behaviour that can help us to understand the underlying factors and mechanisms determining the evolution of migration routes, strategies and breeding range extinction. Based on light-level geolocator we reveal a first track of the Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) migration, providing insight into the migration pattern, timing and behaviour of the species that recently has extended its migration routes. Unexpectedly, the studied individual did not retrace a recent range expansion that runs north and east from the Caspian Sea but followed a migration route running south form the Caspian sea, suggesting possible presence of an alternative species range expansion. The overall migration distance between the breeding site in Poland and the non-breeding site in Pakistan was about 10,420 km and included two endurance movement phases (920 and 2240 km) covering 30% of the whole journey length, with an average movement speed of 574 km/day. We explain this migration behaviour as an adaptation for crossing the ecological barriers imposed by arid environments.