Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Vespremeanu E.E. (1968) Distribution and biology of the Spoonbill in Roumania. ARDEA 56 (1-2): 160-177
The author gives a brief survey of the Spoonbill in Romania, showing the nesting sites and the population numbers throughout the past 60 years. The results of the author's investigations of the biology of the species in the CplpraŠi lake system between 1958 and 1963 (1962 exclusively) are presented. The annual cycle, egg-size and clutch-size are described. It was found that eggs of smaller clutches are larger than those in larger clutches (Table 4). The nesting biology is dealt with at length and the mortality during the nestling period as well as other biological particularities are analysed. Mortality of the chicks is highest during the first two days after hatching, being 5.73% on the average. The mortality rate during the total nestling period of 50-54 days varied between 11.3% (1960) and 100% (1961) and was 41.3% on the average. Apart from the disastrous year of 1961, when all nests were flooded, mortality in nestlings over 40 days of age was at the average no more than 1.2%. The author concludes that these particularities are not favourable for maintaining high densities in the Spoonbill populations. Active protection of the birds and their nesting sites is suggested as the only means for preventing the loss of the species in Europe.


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