RT journal article
T1 Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) and Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) prefer shells for nesting: A field experiment
A1 Castro Casas, Esperanza Macarena
A1 Cruz Muñoz, Andrés de la
A1 Martín Sanjuan, Nuria
A1 Pérez Hurtado de Mendoza, Alejandro
A2 Biología
K1 Habitat management
K1 Nest site selection
K1 Saltpan restoration
K1 Shell supplementation
K1 Shorebirds
AB Shorebird populations are declining worldwide, mainly due to human disturbances and loss of coastal wetlands. However, supratidal habitats as saltpans could play a role in buffering human impact. Saltpans have shown to be important as feeding or breeding sites of some shorebird species. A potential conservation strategy to increase shorebird populations in saltpans is to manipulate the cues that birds use to select optimal breeding habitat. Here it is hypothesized that shorebirds are attracted to bivalve shells due to the advantages they offer. Following this hypothesis, we supplemented a restored saltpan in 2019 and 2021 with bivalve shells, expecting an increase in the number of breeding birds’ nests. More than 75% of Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) and Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) nests were found in patches with shells in both years. The best model for both species indicates that the presence of shells is the factor that most correlates with the location of nests. The probability of choosing one place over another to settle their nest increases in areas with an abundance of shells, double in the case of the Kentish Plover and triple in the case of the Little Tern. The result of this study may constitute a valuable tool for attracting birds to restored saltpans and could contribute to the success of expensive restoration projects where time is usually a constraint.
PB Keai
SN 2053-7166
YR 2024
FD 2024-01-21
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32405
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32405
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-nov-2026