Does the White Stork Ciconia ciconia reflect farmland bird diversity?

Abstract

The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is an icon of nature protection and one of the easiest birds to monitor, particularly in Central Europe. Here avian biodiversity was compared between sites (territories) occupied by nesting White Storks and sites that were formerly occupied but were unoccupied during the two study years, and often for several preceding years. The study was conducted in Western Poland during two breeding seasons, 2007 and 2008, involving 43 and 54 territories, respectively. Moreover, information on nest oc-cupancy and breeding success of White Storks since 2005 was used as a measure of habi-tat quality. Breeding bird diversity was significantly higher in occupied than in unoccu-pied White Stork territories. Bird diversity was also higher in territories with better White Stork chick productivity in the period 20052008. Even greater differentiation in bird di-versity might have been achieved between occupied White Stork territories and random sampling points in similar habitat.