Use of predator exclosures to protect Xanthopsar flavus nests in Argentina.

MARÍA INÉS PEREDA; MARÍA FLORENCIA PUCHETA; ADRIAN S. DI GIACOMO

Puerto Iguazú

Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

Aves Argentinas

The Saffron-cowled Blackbird Xanthopsar flavus is a passerine endemic to the temperate grasslands of southern South America and categorized as vulnerable to extinction by IUCN. Four small and disjoint populations are left in the southwest of Brazil and Uruguay; southeast of Paraguay and northeast of Argentina. In Argentina the species has been classified as critically endangered due to the great decrease in its populations experienced in the last decade, shifting its numbers from 1500 to only 600. Regular reproductive sites are unknown in Argentina and the territory lacks protection. In 2015 a project was developed to protect the colonies and increase the reproductive success of both populations from Entre Rios and Corrientes located in endangered IBA (AR177 IBA and AR143 respectively). Due to the nests' low survival rate in the colonies, we designed a simple protection to protect them from medium sized predators. During 2015 and 2016 reproductive season we installed these mesh enclosures to 29 nests on chick stage and monitored by camera traps to record the activity of parents and possible predators. In Corrientes, the success of protected nests was 50% and 82% in each year respectively. In Entre Ríos, the protections were only placed during 2016 with a 50% success. 26 nests were left unprotected with null success in both seasons for Corrientes and 13% and 53% for Entre Ríos. In this study, we describe the simple and cheap device used to increase the reproductive success of Saffron-cowled Blackbird?s colonies prone to high predation risk.