Ziemowit Kosiński, Elżbieta Bilińska, Julian Dereziński, Joanna Jeleń, Marcin Kempa
Ornis Polonica 2010, 51: 1–13
https://doi.org/10.12657/ornis.2010.1.0
Abstract: The research was aimed at recognition of the factors which determine the abundance of the Black Woodpecker Dryocopus martius and Stock Dove Columba oenas in the forests of western Poland. In the period 2003–2007, 33 territories of the Black Woodpecker and 98 pairs of the Stock Dove were recorded from seven study plots (jointly 3164 ha). The Black Woodpecker density amounted to 0.3–2.3 ter./100 ha of forest area, while the Stock Dove reached a density of 0.5–12.6 pairs/100 ha of forest area. The densities of both species increased with the growing share of tree-stands dominated by the European Beech Fagus sylvatica and European Hornbeam Carpinus betulus over 80 years old. The density of trees with nest-holes made by Black Woodpeckers, which is potential breeding sites for Stock Doves, ranged from 2.7 to 16.4/100 ha of forest area, whereas the density of nest-holes equalled 4.3–45.7 per 100 ha of forest area. The density of trees with nest-holes and that of the nest-holes themselves were found significantly correlated with the Black Woodpecker density (r=0.81; P=0.028 and r=0.87; P=0.011 respectively). The majority (84%) of nest-holes excavated by Black Woodpeckers were situated in beech trees. The proportion of nest-holes occupied by the Stock Dove on particular study plots amounted to 5–24%, which yields an average of 16% (SD=7.4). Stock Doves most frequently occupied the nest-holes in the beeches; in pine trees, rarer than it would follow from the availability of trees with nest-holes. The Stock Dove density was increasing with the growth in the density of trees containing nest-holes (r=0.79; P=0.033) and in the density of nest-holes (r=0.85; P=0.015). When the nest-holes excavated in pine trees were excluded from analysis, the correlation between the Stock Dove density and the density of nest-holes obtained was even stronger (r=0.98; P<0.001). These results indicate that both the activity of the Black Woodpecker and occurrence of the beech in the tree-stands of western Poland play an important role in the maintenance of the Stock Dove populations.
