LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE EUROPEAN ROLLER (CORACIAS GARRULUS) IN UKRAINE: IS CLIMATE BEHIND THE CHANGES?

Since the 1980s there has been a long-term decline in numbers and contraction of range in Europe, including Ukraine. Our specific goals were to reconstruct the climatically suitable range of the species in Ukraine before the 1980s, gain better knowledge on its requirements, compare the past and current suitable areas, infer the regional and environmental variables that best explain its occurrence, and quantify the overall range change in the country. For these purposes we created a database consisting of 347 records of the roller made ever in Ukraine. We employed a species distribution modeling (SDM) approach to hindcast changes in the suitable range of the roller during historical times across Ukraine and to derive spatially explicit predictions of climatic suitability for the species under current climate. SDMs were created for three time intervals (before 1980, 1985-2009, 2010-2021) using corresponding climate data extracted from the TerraClim database. SDMs show a decline of suitable for rollers areas in the country from 85 to 46%. Several factors, including land cover and use, human population density and climate, that could have contributed to the decline of the species in Ukraine were considered. We suggest climate change and its speed (velocity) have been responsible for shaping the contemporary home range of the European roller.

LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE EUROPEAN ROLLER (CORACIAS GARRULUS) IN UKRAINE: IS CLIMATE BEHIND THE CHANGES?

Since the 1980s there has been a long-term decline in numbers and contraction of range in Europe, including Ukraine. Our specific goals were to reconstruct the climatically suitable range of the species in Ukraine before the 1980s, gain better knowledge on its requirements, compare the past and current suitable areas, infer the regional and environmental variables that best explain its occurrence, and quantify the overall range change in the country. For these purposes we created a database consisting of 347 records of the roller made ever in Ukraine. We employed a species distribution modeling (SDM) approach to hindcast changes in the suitable range of the roller during historical times across Ukraine and to derive spatially explicit predictions of climatic suitability for the species under current climate. SDMs were created for three time intervals (before 1980, 1985-2009, 2010-2021) using corresponding climate data extracted from the TerraClim database. SDMs show a decline of suitable for rollers areas in the country from 85 to 46%. Several factors, including land cover and use, human population density and climate, that could have contributed to the decline of the species in Ukraine were considered. We suggest climate change and its speed (velocity) have been responsible for shaping the contemporary home range of the European roller. Key words: Coracias garrulus; species distribution modelling; ecological niche; climate change; velocity of climate change

Reproductive behavior of the european roller (Coracias garrulus Linnaeus, 1758)

In the European part of Russia, there is a decrease in the area and number of the European Roller. We performed a preliminary study of the role of behavioral ecology in the survival of the species. The material was collected in the Stavropol krai in 2004, 2006-2019. Females and males were distinguished by color intensity (females' plumage is paler) and behavior. Birds exhibit complex biocommunication with features of a foraging economy, distribution of parental roles, and high coordination of partner actions. Additional research is needed to elucidate the behavior of birds whose partners died in the flyover or wintering areas.

Discovery and Prevalence of Divergent RNA Viruses in European Field Voles and Rabbits

The advent of unbiased metagenomic virus discovery has revolutionized studies of virus biodiversity and evolution. Despite this, our knowledge of the virosphere, including in mammalian species, remains limited. We used unbiased metagenomic sequencing to identify RNA viruses in European field voles and rabbits. Accordingly, we identified a number of novel RNA viruses including astrovirus, rotavirus A, picorna-like virus and a narmovirus (paramyxovirus). In addition, we identified a sobemovirus and a novel luteovirus that likely originated from the rabbit diet. These newly discovered viruses were often divergent from those previously described. The novel astrovirus was most closely related to a virus sampled from the rodent-eating European roller bird (Coracias garrulous). PCR screening revealed that the novel narmovirus in the UK field vole had a prevalence of approximately 4%, and shared common ancestry with other rodent narmoviruses sampled globally. Two novel rotavirus A sequences were detected in a UK field vole and a French rabbit, the latter with a prevalence of 5%. Finally, a highly divergent picorna-like virus found in the gut of the French rabbit virus was only ~35% similar to an arilivirus at the amino acid level, suggesting the presence of a novel viral genus within the Picornaviridae.

Cases of occasional interspecific brood parasitism and egg dumping in Hungary

There are numerous publications in the ornithological literature on mixed-species broods, i.e. on cases when a species lays some or all of its eggs into the nests of other species. This phenomenon, known as brood parasitism, has not yet been studied in Hungary. Here, I use the term brood parasitism, but I could not separate cases of egg dumping, a reproductive error by females. Based on literature and my own observations, I found evidence for interspecific brood parasitism in 28 species breeding in Hungary, not including the cases of the obligate interspecific brood parasite, the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Only one of these belongs to passerines, while in the rest of the cases, this phenomenon occurred in representatives of non-passerine families. However, cases of brood parasitism and nest parasitism have to be treated separately. The latter refers to cases when a species occupies a nest, usually a nesthole or nestbox, already containing eggs of another species, and lays its own eggs next to the foreign eggs. The present study provides data on European Roller (Coracias garrulus), Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus), Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo), tit species (Parus, Cyanistes, Poecile spp.), Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) and Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus), but in all likelihood the number of species involved is much higher.