The La Maddalena National Park resumes, after 11 years, the monitoring of passerine birds. Here are some results of the research carried out in 2012.
A robin ringed on 19 February 2012 at Caprera was reported in Finland in April; in 65 days it had flown an impressive 2,194 kilometers . Another "Maddalenino" robin was found in Switzerland while a "flycatcher", a few weeks after the ringing that took place in Caprera had reached Hungary.
These data were presented, in 2013, to the Cea di Stagnali (Caprera) by dr. Sergio Nizzardi who with Dr. Carla Zucca, both from the Antus company, had carried out a study on the avifauna on behalf of the National Park. In 2012 a study was carried out, through the capture and ringing of small migratory birds, mainly passerines, which alternate in the archipelago during the year.
In one year of activity, 3,990 birds were ringed. 34% were robins, 10% warblers, 9.6% warblers. And then blackbirds, woodcocks, owls, hoopoes, warblers, warblers, flycatchers, blackcaps, turtle doves, woodpeckers. Subsequently, a study was carried out on two breeding species, the common shag and the Audouin's gull. As regards the common shag, the population was found to have significantly increased, going from the approximately 300 pairs surveyed in 1986 (Schenk & Torre) to 495 pairs surveyed in 2012, distributed across 21 islands of the archipelago. This marine bird also moves, in fact ringed specimens were found in Porto Venere in Liguria, as near Propriano in Corsica.
As for the Corsican gull, widespread in the Mediterranean basin, it is present on all the islands of the archipelago with more or less numerous colonies. The study carried out by the two researchers highlighted, compared to others carried out previously, the extinction, the disappearance in the La Maddalena National Park, of the Bonelli's eagle, the osprey, the greater tern (which very probably nested in the Archipelago as far to the last decades of the nineteenth century), and of the Sardinian partridge (for which, however, there is no certainty of a significant presence in the past). Conversely, the wood pigeon, the collared dove and the scops owl have arrived in the National Park, and were not there before.
It will therefore be interesting, and not only from a scientific point of view, to compare these data with those that will be obtained with the new study planned.
