Nesting habitat suitability and breeding of Asian woollyneck (Ciconia episcopus) in Nepal

ABSTRACT: Asian woollyneck (Ciconia episcopus) is a large wading bird species whose conservation status has been recently down-listed, despite a lack of concrete information on its nesting ecology and breeding success. In this study, we report its breeding success and nest habitat suitability in Nepal from 39 nesting sites (2016–2020). Simal (Bombax ceiba) (n = 21), followed by sal tree(Shorea robusta) (n = 6), and rani-salla (Pinus roxburghii) (n = 4) were the most common tree with mean height of the nesting tree, nest height, and tree diameter being 30 ± 5.8 m (± SD), 25.20 ± 5.75 m, and 1.03 ± 0.35 m, respectively. Nesting and fledging success were recorded from 31 nesting attempts at 19 of these sites, with an estimated nesting success probability of 0.81 ± 0.07 and a mean fledging success of 1.

SUBMITTER: Ghimire P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9380969 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature