Additional data to the historical breeding of the Eurasian Woodcock in the Carpathian Basin

Abstract

The Eurasian Woodcock is a regular breeder in the wooded areas of the Carpathian Basin. In the past, several literature reviews on the distribution and breeding biology of the species in the Carpathian Basin have been published, but these have ignored the annual reports on spring returns collected between 1894 and 1926 under the coordination of the Hungarian Ornithological Centre. These included 379 nesting records from the present area of Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. The majority of the data came from the Carpathians, with a smaller number from forested areas in the lower mountains and hills. It was particularly rare in lowland areas, with most of the records coming from floodplain forests. The spatial distribution of the data is somewhat at odds with that described in recent summary works. From the Northern Carpathians and the Eastern Alps, however, these sources report fewer nestings, and most of the data come from Transylvania. The temporal distribution of the data is consistent with previously published results. In some cases nestings were found in late February and early March. The peak of nesting was in April, with only a small number of nestings reported in the second half of May. Breeding occurred significantly later in areas at higher altitudes. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that knowledge of the species’ nesting in the Carpathian Basin is still incomplete.