Population trend and breeding productivity of some migrant passerines in Hungary

Abstract

This study aimed to monitor the demographic changes of some closely related species based on bird ringing data from the CES (Constant Effort Sites) program in Hungary between 2007 and 2018, and to explore the reasons for these demographic changes. The CES program tracks breeding bird populations with standard methods. The studied species breeding in Hungary were from genera Sylvia, Curruca, and Phylloscopus. Among these species, the trends of some forest birds, like Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), Lesser Whitethroat (Curruca curruca), Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) and Willow Warbler (Ph. trochilus) showed no substantial changes, and one of the open-habitat species, the Barred Warbler (Curruca nisoria) – a long distant migrant – showed decreasing trends. The Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin) – a trans-Saharan migrant but forest dweller – also experienced population declines. Short-distance migrants maintained stable populations. Common Whitethroat productivity displayed an increasing trend to compensate for population decline. Upon examining the Eurasian Blackcap, this study detected a strong relationship between the number of adult birds, productivity, and the number of adults captured the following year.