Analisi qualitativa e quantitativa dell’attività d’Inanellamento in Sicilia nel periodo 1998-2013

Abstract

This report summarizes the ringing activity in Sicily during the years 1998-2013. In these 16 years 129,415 birds were ringed, 17,908 of which were chicks and 111,507 adults, for a total amount of 196 species. The remarkable increasing numbers, compared with those from previous years, was mainly due to specific projects, particularly the Small Islands Project (PPI), coordinated by the ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale). Here we discuss the most significant species only. Nearly 90% of species, mainly captured by mist-nets, belonged to the order Passeriformes. We carried 70% of ringing activity in the islands of Lampedusa, Linosa, Marettimo and Ustica, where in different years we set up monitoring stations for the spring and/or autumn migration and where we followed the protocols of PPI. Results provided interesting information on the importance of these sites as stop-over sites for migrating birds. Different species of capture/recovering occurred between circum-Sicilian islands and the islands of Anacapri, Ponza, Ventotene and Zannone showed the strategic significance of these sites for the bird migration across the Mediterranean area. The ringing activity carried out simultaneously in the islands of Ustica and Marettimo, allowed to find that migratory birds travelled along different directions. We captured and ringed some accidental species of Sylvidae, Muscicapidae and Fringillidae. We also obtained new information on sedentary species during their dispersal movements. The consistent effort of ringing activity in the Nature Reserves, Zones of Special Protection and Sites of Community Importance resulted very productive. The reserves Biviere di Gela and Pergusa lake were regular ringing sites where the ringing activity allowed to depict the ornithological community across seasons, estimate the density of some species, collect data on their phenology and detect elusive species, previously escaped to direct observations. An important number of nestlings of some species (e.g., Lesser Kestrels, pelagic birds), some of them vulnerable species, were ringed in the last 16 years; this allowed to highlight some of their biological and ecological aspects, diet, seasonal movements, population trends and site fidelity. During the ringing activity in the Linosa island, we adopted a series of conservation actions against the black rats, the main cause of breeding failure of the Scopoli’s shearwater. The Yellow-legged Gull was monitored in one of the biggest Sicilian colonies to obtain interesting data on young dispersal. We ringed massive numbers of tits (among which also Cyanistes teneriffae in the Pantelleria Island) breeding in the nest-boxes. These allowed to collect new data on tit breeding biology and in particular on the relationships between the breeding success and trophic resources in natural and artificial forest habitats. Specific and systematic studies on single species, such as the Lesser Kestrel in one of the biggest colonies of Sicily, the Bee-eater and the Penduline Tit allowed to collect data useful to assess their long-term conservation status. To date, we acquired a great amount of biometrical, phenological and physiological information on several bird species, that might be used for different purposes. We lastly listed 178 birds either ringed in Italy or outside Italy and recovered in Sicily, or ringed in Sicily and recovered outside the island. Overall, our ringing activity involved ca. 3,000 working days, carried out by dozens of ringers and collaborators coming from all the regions of Italy and Malta which makes this as one of the most significant examples of “citizen science” in our country.