It was once a common resident of lowlands. In 1900, there were 2400 individuals living in Slovakia, after the Second World War there was more than a thousand of them, but today it nests only in the last locality in Slovakia and thus it belongs to our most endangered bird species.
We talk about the great bustard, the heaviest flying bird in Europe. The experts, who have been working on its conservation for many years, have a reason to be happy this year. They recorded as many as 10 nesting great bustard hens.
“In the past, there were thousands of bustards living mostly in the lowlands of the western Slovakia. When we look in the history, the great bustard belonged to the hunted bird species. Due to gradual changes in the use of the agricultural land, involving perishing of grasslands, fallows, balks, and of a more varied composition of crops, its population here decreased rapidly. Collisions with power lines also had a great impact on its decline. Due to its size, the bustard has trouble manoeuvring when flying and thus the construction of above-ground power lines became a turn of the screw for the bird. Currently, the bustard have been nesting only in a single site in Slovakia, in the Sysľovské polia Special Protection Area near Bratislava,” states Jozef Ridzoň from the Slovak Ornithological Society.
“The land use went through radical changes in the last decades. Large fields were created, where the bustard could not find enough food. At the same time, its nests with the clutch were destroyed by the agricultural machinery and the support of the state, which, as in the neighbouring countries, would have helped farmers with the more environment-friendly management, was missing. In the tri-border area between Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, where the Sysľovské polia SPA is located, it survived especially thanks to the varied landscape and the support towards the protection of the bustard’s habitat, which is right beyond the borders,” adds Tomáš Veselovský from the Raptor Protection of Slovakia.
This year, after many decades, the conditions for the great bustard’s life started to change in Slovakia. “Thanks to the farmers in the Sysľovské polia SPA, more field boundaries were created. These grasslands are not mowed during the breeding season - since April. In addition to that, field boundaries and fallows were created also within the LIFE Steppe on border project. The above mentioned are vitally important for the bustard. There is enough food and quiet for undisturbed breeding in them,” informs Ridzoň.
During the nesting season, the experts, in cooperation with the State Nature Conservancy, were monitoring the bustard’s breeding. “Even though the bustard is a large bird, it is very difficult to find its nest. When the hen is sitting on eggs, it just pokes its head out inconspicuously to carefully watch its surroundings. This year, we were monitoring as many as 10 nesting hens, of which in two cases we found a nest with the clutch. It is the highest number since ’90s when the population decreased under fewer than ten individuals and the species got to the edge of extinction. The fact that the bustard nested in such a number here gives us satisfaction after years of efforts to rescue it. After harvesting we have reported two hens escorting their chicks through the stubble field” says Samuel Pačenovský from the State Nature Conservancy, the Management of the Dunajské luhy PLA.
Field boundaries and fallows are very important for the life in an agricultural landscape. In addition to the fact that they prevent the soil from eroding and the most fertile humus layer from being swept away, they support biodiversity. “A huge amount of insects benefit from the plants which flower in the field boundaries and fallows during the whole season. Birds can find enough food and shelter in the covers. Except for the bustards, coveys of partridges came to like the field boundaries too. Though their abundance dropped by 99 % in the previous half-century, this year it was right in the Sysľovské polia where we recorded a rather rare high breeding success rate of partridges. Field boundaries were a help to the great number of families with produced chicks,” concludes Ridzoň.
Illustrative picture: Jozef Chavko
