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Description: Dutch farmland birds are facing hard times. Corn bunting Miliaria calandra and Ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana have recently gone extinct while Yellowhammer Emberiza citronella and Tree sparrow Passer montanus have become rare. Lack of sufficient food in wintertime has been identified as an important cause for this decline.
This project aims to find out how farmland birds can be provided with food during winter time most effectively. Ten areas with winter food plots will be compared with ten control areas. During winter, food availability and use of different seed sources by different bird species will be determined. In spring the density of breeding birds and reproductive success in the two types of areas will be assessed.
Research questions:
- Does winter food provisioning support the local breeding population?
- What is the effect of winter food provisioning on reproductive success?
- Which crops (e.g. Fodder radish, Wheat, Linseed) provides farmland birds most effectively with food during winter?
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