Folia faunistica Slovaca (2008) 13 (12): 81-84

First record of Oriolus oriolus (Aves: Oriolidae) in the Slovenský Raj National Park, Slovakia, with a list of bird species found in the ‘ATBI Gemer’ region

Swen C. Renner^{1, 2}, Eduard Stloukal³ & Christoph Haeuser¹

1 State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany

2 Current address: BirdLife International, N6/2+3, Lane 25, Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam [swen.renner@web.de]

3 Department of Zoology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina B-1, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia [stloukal@fns.uniba.sk]

Prišlo (received): 17.7.2008; Akceptované (accepted): 28.12.2008; Vydané (published) online: 31.12.2008

Abstract

The ‘European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy – Work Package 7’ (EDIT WP7) was on a pilot study trip to the ‘Gemer’ area from 1. to 6. May 2008. The pilot trip identified best sampling sites for ‘All Taxonomy Biodiversity Inventory + Monitoring’ (ATBI+M) in one or all three National Parks of the ‘Gemer’ region. The visited national parks included Muránska Planina, Slovenský Raj (also known as Slovenský Paradise in Slovak language), and Slovenský kras (Slovak Karst). On one of these trips we recorded feather remains of a male adult Oriolus oriolus, hardly recorded from the area and new to the Slovenský Raj National Park.

On a pilot study trip to three national parks in southern Slovakia in the ‘ATBI Gemer’ area close to the border to Hungary, a team of National Park wardens and taxonomists with the specialty of entomology, ornithology and bryology where sampling the Slovenský Raj National Park. On 3.5.2008, we found some feather remains from a larger bird and the primaries with some wing coverts where still collectable. At an elevation about 1,000 m a.s.l. at the top of the ‘Veľký Sokol’ gorge in the center of the Slovenský Raj National Park (close to our location #008; see Table 2) we found the wing remains on the way from the top. The feather where from both wings and cut of by probably a raptor, and had some fleshy parts as well as bright yellow wing coverts attached. We saved the feathers and identified it tentatively as Golden Oriole, Oriolus oriolus (Linnaeus, 1756) in the field. The only larger bird, the size of Turdus merula (Svensson et al. 1999) with bright yellow wing coverts is O. oriolus adult male, resembling perfectly the typical wing pattern with thin white fringes on the primaries (Figures 1 and 2). A comparison with other collection material in Bratislava and Stuttgart revealed the perfect match of the species’ plumage. The park wardens unequivocally stated that they have never observed this species in the altitude of about 1,000 m a.s.l. or in the National Park at all.

O. oriolus is typically breeding in open deciduous forests with high stems throughout Europe. In some areas also breeding in coniferous forests can occur. Typically larger riparian forests or wetlands are close (Svensson et al. 1999).

O. oriolus is difficult to observe, since typically in the canopy far above ground and besides its colorful plumage of adult males hard to visually observe. However the voice is well distinctive and resembles just sometimes these of Turdus merula (Svensson et al. 1999).

O. oriolus is confirmed from the general region in central Slovakia (Ferianc 1977, 1979; Glutz von Blotzheim & Bauer 1993), it can be found in most areas of the country during nesting period except of mountains at north of central and easter parts (Danko et al. 2002, Hudec et al. 1983) and our finding is on the border between two localities with confirmed record and without any record (see map therein). Dušan Karaska (head of BirdLife Slovakia) confirmed that so far no record of O. oriolus is known from the Slovenský raj NP (pers. comm.).

There are no previous safe observations available, neither from the ‘Veľký Sokol’ gorge nor the Slovenský Raj National Park area or surroundings. However, the bird’s lively habits and restless moving in the canopy high above ground is one reason for observer bias. In addition, the habitat was not the most prominent area to actively search for the species, since rather young forest, dry and far away from the next riparian forest or wetlands. The imminent forests surrounding the site was young Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) on the edge with habitat not typically for O. oriolus. Having said that, of course the predator could have carried the individuals some distance, before starting to tear away the feathers.

Figure 1. Recovered primaries found at the Slovenský Raj National Park.

Figure 2. Recovered primaries found at the Slovenský Raj National Park.

Preliminary bird list

Additionally to this remarkable finding, we recorded 36 birds in less then 5 hours of intensive work in the three different sites of the region (Table 1). The workload for ornithological observations varied considerably between sites and was most intensive in Muránska Planina around Muráň (the information center of the National Park: #001 in Table 2) and reduced due to heavy rain in the Slovenský Kras NP.

The time constraints are the main reason why we found just few species, with a more thorough search for one or more breeding seasons we probably would observe many more rare species in the region. For example, Peregrine Flacon (Falco peregrinus) and Saker (F. cherrug) have been observed frequently in the region, but not during our study trip. In addition, we set a focus on the forested areas and sampled less intensive in open or true agricultural areas.

Acknowledgements

EDIT WP7 was the sponsoring organization and helped considerably to accomplish the work we did. Katarína Necpálová helped considerably on the logistics for the trip. Bedřich Hájek (director of the Slovenský raj NP), Jana Šmídtová (deputy director of the Muránska planina NP), and Ján Kilík (director of the Slovenský kras NP) granted insight in their parks and were helpful during our field trip. Iris Heynen and Friederike Woog from the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, helped to process the photos of reference material.

Table 1. Birds recorded during trips to the three national parks.

 

Table 2. Localities visited and coordinates (as from GPS).

 

References

ñ top

Danko Š, Darolová A & Krištín A, 2002: Rozšírenie vtákov na Slovensku. Veda, Bratislava, 688 pp.

Ferianc O, 1977 : Vtáky Slovenska 1. Veda, Bratislava, 684 pp.

Ferianc O, 1979: Vtáky Slovenska 2. Veda, Bratislava, 472 pp.

Glutz von Blotzheim UN, Bauer KM (ed.) 1993. Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas. Vol. 13/4. Passeriformes. Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden.

Hudec K, Černý W et al., 1983: Fauna ČSSR, Ptáci 3/II. Academia, Praha, 1234 pp.

Huňa Ľ, Kozák M, Vološ­čuk I et al. 1985: Slo­ven­ský raj, Chrá­nená kra­jinná oblasť. Prí­roda Bra­ti­slava, 376 pp.

Svensson L, Grant PJ, Mullarney K, Zetterström D. 1999. Der neue Kosmos Vogelführer: Alle Arten Europas, Nordafrikas und Vorderasiens. Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart .

ñ top