No abstract

A national White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) census was organised in Hungary in 2019. The 14th country-wide nest count was coordinated by MME/BirdLife Hungary, also involving local branches and volunteers of the society and national park directorates.Altogether 5,018 nests and 2,358 White Stork nest holders without nest material were reported. 89.2% of occupied nests were built on electric poles. Although 80 years ago every third nests were found on trees, in 2019, only 6 were reported at that location. Successful pairs raised 2.62 nestlings on average, breeding success for all breeding pairs was 2.19, which is lower than typical, probably due to chilly and rainy weather during the breeding season. Based on 3,540 reported breeding pairs and former census data, the White Stork population of Hungary is estimated to be 3,860–4,020 pairs in 2019. The size of the population was ca. 15–16 thousand pairs in 1941, which halved by 1958 and decreased to 5 thousand pairs by the late 1960s. For four decades, the population fluctuated between 4,800 and 5,500 pairs but in the last twenty years, the number of breeding pairs slightly decreased in the country. The population decline is stronger in hilly areas of W Hungary, i.e. in Somogy, Vas and Zala counties is about 60%.

In Hungary, changes in the White Stork population are monitored using two methods that involve a large number of volunteers: nest surveys since 1941, and since 1999 within the framework of the Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (MMM) programme. In our article, we briefly present the results of the nest survey data between 1999 and 2021, the population trend calculated on the basis of them, and the comparison of the latter with the trends shown by the MMM programme, which – among other species – counts all stork individuals on 2.5×2.5 km sample areas. Both sets of data show a decreasing trend, but there is a significant difference between them, which may be partly due to the inaccuracies of the nest database, considering the fact that the MMM also counts non-breeding adult and immature individuals. However, both methods have the characteristics that make them suitable for monitoring population trends.