Breeding in an agricultural landscape: conservation actions increase nest survival in a ground-nesting bird

Abstract

Agricultural intensification has affected wildlife across Europe, usually prompting steep declines and regional extinctions in farmland birds. Effective conservation activities are essential for preservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscape, but despite the efforts, the halting (or reversing) the decline of farmland species are still rare. Here we investigate a ground-nesting shorebird, the Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola)that has switched its habitat preferences in Central Europe in the last 20 years from alkaline grasslands to intensively managed agricultural landscapes. We show that nest success was different between three habitat types, with the highest nest success in fallow lands whereas nests in row crops showed the lowest hatching success. Nest success was also associated with timing of breeding and breeding density, since nests produced early in the breeding season and those in dense breeding sites hatched more successfully than those later in the season and low breeding density, respectively. Importantly, since 2012 direct conservation measures have been implemented that include the marking of nests and negotiating with farmers to avoid the usage of agricultural machinery around the marked areas, controlling nest predators and most recently creating suitable nesting sites and foraging areas for the Pratincoles. Due to these direct conservation actions, the probability of both nest survival increased from 0.11 in 2012 to 0.83 in year 2021, and the size of breeding population increased from 16 pairs in 2013 to 56 in 2021. Taken together, agricultural areas can continue providing important habitats for various organisms, and with targeted conservation actions we can reduce or even halt the decline of farmland species.