Since urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon, numerous species have gained the advantage of urban ecosystems. The Eurasian Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) has become widespread all across Europe along with human-altered habitats. In general, population levels are stable but numbers have locally decreased in the past few decades. In parallel, a new wave of urbanization came forward, so Wood Pigeons (Columba palumbus) entered urban ecosystems alongside with other Columbidae species. In this paper, our primary goal was to find any connection between habitat availability factors such as coniferous tree density and the population dynamics of two urbanized species. A locally emerging corvid species, the Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix) was also taken into consideration in influencing tree-nesting doves and pigeons as a primary nest predator. During the research period, we aimed to express the differences in habitat structure of two urban ecotypes by nesting tree availability and structure and to prove the power of predator presence in sampling sites. Our results showed that residential areas have a higher proportion of coniferous trees, as well as the high preference of residential areas by Wood Pigeons and Eurasian Collared Doves.

The Eurasian Collared Dove shows different patterns in density all over Hungary. In some cases, the population has decreased to a lower level, but there are habitats where the population remained stable. Several factors were taken into consideration during the evaluation of this phenomenon. These publications state that the increased urbanization of corvids, the lack of food sources, and the changes in nesting sites caused the decrease in numbers. During our research, we intend to contrast the differences in population structure of Collared Doves that differ from each other in the density of predators presented at nesting sites. As a first step, in this paper, numerous samples (n=118) were taken from a population that is less influenced by corvid species’ nest predation. Our prediction was that the population parameters remained at the level of 1980’s, in which the population of Eurasian Collared Dove has reached its maximum, according to further publications. During the evaluation process, our data were collected from hunting bags near Nyíregyháza. Results were compared with former publications. We stated that the population structure, such as age and gender distribution remained stable in the evaluated population. In addition, morphometric factors of the collected individuals were also measured, such as weight, wing length, 3rd primary feather, and tail length, which were compared with former surveys. During statistical tests no significant difference was revealed among population parameters, but there were significant differences between most of the morphometric data, (p>0.05).

The goal of research planning is to optimize human and material resources while maximizing efficiency. If there are databases that can be used as a substitute for own data collection, effective research can be facilitated by reallocating resources. In the case of environmental studies, the knowledge of the climatic conditions of the study period is known to be a key factor in research planning process.  In the present study, the data of our meteorological station in our research area (known as “Szamárháti Tanya”, Kesznyéten, Hungary) was compared with the measurements of meteorological stations operated by the competent water authority. Stations were taken into the study within a 10 and 20 km radius over a period of 21 months, to determine which provided more relevant data from the area. During the evaluation of results, the relationship between the local and regional weather stations were determined, and deductions were made from the obtained results to support the decision which of the targeted investigations could be of greater benefit.

In this research, our main goal was to test, if there is an effective, yet economical way to perform native sexing on Columbidae species in field conditions. Since molecular sexing is not available among field conditions, a morphometric method was aimed to be used. After morphometric measurements, autopsy was performed to determine the sex of collected birds. The novelty of the method is that we added a new measure point to improve age and sex determination. The method was tested on Eurasian Collared Doves (n=18). Our result showed that the gap of pubic bones is highly correlated to age and most of the main morphometric data, despite the low sample number.

As urbanization among bird species increases, among passerines, columbid species are evolving in urban habitats. The Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) is a wide-spread columbid species in Europe, which has a still ongoing urbanization process in Hungary. The success of this phenomenon depends on the nutrient and nesting resources represented in urban habitats. This paper has the goal to collect sufficient data on the nestsite use characteristics of the native species Common Wood Pigeon in an urban ecosystem. During the research a survey was made on 150 nests observed on 19 tree species/genera to determine the tree species composition, the average height that are used by these birds. In addition, descriptive factors were also recorded such as horizontal position of the nest, habitat type, and the traffic intensity as well.