Nest Boxes for Roller Coracias Garrulus on Utility Lines

27 Mar Nest Boxes for Roller Coracias Garrulus on Utility Lines

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Abstract

English Abstract

Between 2009 and 2014 we installed 122 nest boxes for Roller in three Italian regions. Nest boxes were mounted on pylons of utility lines of Terna Rete Italia , up to 6 m from ground. After 2012 nest boxes were fitted with anti-predator protec- tions, a plastic tube attached on the entrance hole, and this efficiently stopped egg and chick removal. Occupation was slow but progressed constantly so that in Latium 38% of the nest boxes were occupied at the end of the five-year period and 18% in Emilia-Romagna at the end of the tree-year period. During the first years after installation nest boxes were also occupied by Scops Owls but this species suffered the competition with rollers and on 2014 only one nest was occupied by owls.In 2013 and 2014 adult birds, ringed as chicks in the nest boxes, were found to breed in the boxes in the vicinity of their natal site in Latium, thus suggesting that a high phy- lopatry occurred and that more occupation of boxes can be expected in the forth- coming years.