Przemysław Wylegała, Andrzej Batycki, Tomasz Chodkiewicz, Arkadiusz Sikora
Ornis Polonica 2022, 63: 100–114
https://doi.org/10.12657/ornis.2022.2.2
Abstract: In 2021, an assessment of the breeding population of the Common Crane Grus grus was carried out in the part of the Noteć valley protected as the Natura 2000 Special Protection Area Nadnoteckie Łęgi PLB300003. The population of the species increased there rapidly from 7 pairs in 1990 to 34 pairs in 2003 and 143 pairs in 2021 (95 pairs/100 km2). The confirmed density of breeding population was one of the highest in Poland. Most of the pairs nested on peat bogs (99 pairs; 69.2%), and the remaining ones in old riverbeds (28 pairs; 19.6%), in riparian forests (14 pairs; 9.8%) and on flooded meadows and at the edge of the drainage canal (1 pair each; 0.7% in total). The Common Crane prevalance in 181 1 × 1 km plots was 39.2%. The number of plots inhabited by Common Cranes ranged from 1 to 7 pairs. The model explaining the variability of the number of Common Cranes in the plots showed that the number of pairs depended significantly on the number of peat bogs, the number of old riverbeds and the area of riparian forests.
Keywords: Common Crane, Grus grus, high density, Natura 2000 sites, peat bogs, population growth
