Agricultural intensification and mechanization are major threats to
farmland birds in Europe. The Corncrake Crex crex was a common and
widespread species in rural landscapes in Italy, but its numbers
strongly declined in most of its former range in the last half of the
20th century. Although it is a well-studied species in the Eastern
Italian Alps, where most of the Italian population now occurs, there is
no published information from the Western part of the range. This study
aimed to describe the distribution of the Corncrake in the regions of
Piedmont and Aosta Valley, taking into account both historical and
recent records. Additionally, we assessed the habitat in which
apparently breeding individuals were found. Overall, 78 occurrences of
this species were recorded in the study region. Migrating individuals
occurred at lower elevations, whilst possible breeding records were
located at higher elevations in meadow-pastures and secondary
grasslands. Two main current hotspots were identified in the Chisone
Valley and in the valleys in the province of Cuneo, which represent the
core areas for the species in Piedmont and Aosta Valley. The observation
trend shows a possible recovery of the population at the regional
scale, although a large-scale dedicated survey is needed to estimate
population size. In 2020, the highest number of singing males in one
site (5) was recorded with individuals observed above 1800 m.
Conservation measures at a regional scale addressing grassland
management (including mowing and grazing) might benefit the species and
promote a wider recolonization of the area.

This paper upgrades and updates the checklist of the bird species
recorded in Italy between 1800 and 2019. For the first time, it also
includes subspecies. The classification, taxonomy and English names are
based on «The Handbook of the Birds of the World & BirdLife
International Checklist». The Italian list contains at present 550
species and 702 taxonomic units, including in the latter both the
subspecies and the monotypic species. Each of them has been allocated to
the AERC categories A, B or C according to four different frequency
codes. Since the publication of the previous list (2009), 24 species
have been added. The currently breeding avifauna includes 287 species:
additional 10 species are regarded as nationally extinct breeders. The
Italian checklist, that will be regularly updated, is available on the
website of the CISO-COI
(https://ciso-coi.it/coi/checklist-ciso-coi-degli-uccelli-italiani/).

We discuss the possible mechanisms explaining the potential brood
parasitism between Little Bittern and Common Moorhen by reporting the
first case worldwide of a Little Bittern Ixobrychus minutus laying on a
nest of Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus recorded at Boussedra Pond
(Algeria, Northern Africa). In this regard we review the cases of
possible brood parasitism between Little Bittern and Common Moorhen.

The conservation status of the barn owl at continental level is not
favourable. A way to assess the success and effectiveness of
conservation actions regarding the Strigiformes is to use data collected
at recovery centres that host thousands of individuals.
Individual barn owl’s information were collected at their arrival in six
recovery-centres in Italy, two in northern Italy, two in central and
two in southern Italy. Data were analysed for 1.393 Barn Owls recovered
from 1993 to 2016. Four different recovery reasons were used to classify
the individuals: i) trauma, ii) intoxication, iii) illegal hunting, iv)
other. In three of the six centers we found a significant decrease of
hospitalized Barn owls over the years, possibly because of changes in
the local situations. The percentage of chicks recovered is low. Traffic
death rate significantly affects young owls during their post-fledgling
dispersal period and at a local level, this effect could contribute
significantly to the demographic collapse of the populations,
contributing to a patchy decline of the species in Italy.
The collision with motor vehicles proved to be the primary cause of
hospitalization, but the recovery due to illegal hunting is significant
too, in particular in central and southern Italy.
To limit the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, turns out to be a
necessary and urgent action to help this species.

The coexistence of similar species is determined by resource
partitioning, while the exploitation of the same resource could lead to
competitive exclusion scenarios. The breeding distribution of birds like
the Black Wheatear (Oenanthe leucura), the Black-Eared Wheatear
(Oenanthe hispanica) and the Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius)
overlaps in open, rocky areas of the Western Mediterranean but so far,
the degree of spatial segregation/overlap is poorly understood. Here, we
used MAXENT to build species distribution models and investigate how
the habitat preferences of those three species shape coexistence
patterns in a coastal protected area of the Western Mediterranean.
Within the study area the Black Wheatear is completely restricted to
quarries with a predicted distribution of 162 ha. We found that the
Black and Black-Eared Wheatears responded to a vegetation-vigour
gradient that limits their interspecific territorial overlap (145.3 ha)
to sunny slopes. The Blue Rock Thrush presence is mostly affected by
slope gradient, although tolerating different vegetation-vigour levels,
but overlapping with the Black Wheatear (32.1 ha) in quarry areas and
with the Black-Eared Wheatear (62.8 ha) in steep, rocky slopes. Within
the studied area, quarries appear as a key habitat favouring the
coexistence of sympatric breeding species.

Italian Birds Rarities Committee (COI) – Report
29. This report refers to records from January 1^st to December 31st
2019, with the addition of a number of records from previous years that were
submitted more recently. For each species, the records are listed by date and information
is given as follows: English and scientific name, number of accepted records
pre-  and post-1950 (the numbers in this
abstract refer to the total number of records), number of individuals if more
than one, age or plumage and sex if known, location, date, names of the
observers, and documentation (photograph, sound recording, specimen, etc.).
Taxonomy follow the new CISO-COI Italian Checklist
(https://www.ciso-coi.it/coi/checklist-ciso-coi-degli-uccelli-italiani/), which
also includes subspecies and follows the taxonomy adopted by the HBW-BirdLife
Check-list, as decided by the CISO council in 2018. A total of 35 submissions
involving 25 taxa were assessed. The following 30 records, involving 23 taxa,
were accepted, including four first records for Italy (Cat. AERC: A – COI
Category 1A, 1B): Pallas’s Sandgrouse Syrraptes paradoxus (Tuscany 1961; 2nd
record post-1949); Little Swift Apus affinis (two records: Sardinia 2017;
Sicily 2019; 3rd-4th records); Great Shearwater Ardenna gravis (2nd record);
Brown Booby Sula leucogaster (Latium 2019; Tuscany 2019; Liguria 2019; 5th-7th
records); American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica (Tuscany 2019; 2^nd
record); Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii (Latium 2016; 7th
record);‘Russian Mew Gull’ Larus canus heinei (Lombardy 2019; first record for
this sub-species in Italy); Rüppel’s Vulture Gyps ruepellii (Sicily, 2019;
first record); Red-eyed Vireo Vireo olivaceus (Sicily, 2019; first record); Brown
Shrike Lanius cristatus (Friuli Venezia Giulia, 2019; 2nd record); Isabelline
Shrike Lanius isabellinus (Apulia, 2019; 9th record); Steppe Grey Shrike Lanius
excubitor pallidirostris (two records: Sardinia 2018; Apulia 2019; 6th-7th
records); ‘Desert Grey Shrike’ Lanius excubitor elegans/algeriensis (three
records: Sicily 2017; 8^th 10th records); Brown-necked Raven Corvus ruficollis (Sicily 2019; 2nd record);
Olivaceous Warbler Iduna pallida cf. elaeica (Latium 2019; 8th record);
Isabelline Warbler Iduna opaca (Latium 2016; 7th record); Paddyfield Warbler Acrocephalus
Agricola (two records: Latium 2018, 2019; 27th-28th record). Brichetti &
Fracasso (2020) list 28 records, but only 7 have been assessed by COI, in part
due to the fact that the previous numerical threshold used by COI meant that
some of these records would not have been submitted; Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler Phylloscopus
orientalis (Lombardy 2019; 5th record); Iberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus ibericus
(Sicily 2019; 5^th record); Ehrenberg’s Redstart Phoenicurus
phoenicurus samamisicus (Latium 2019; first record for this subspecies in
Italy); ‘Caspian Stonechat’ Saxicola torquatus hemprichii (Sicily 2019; 4th
record); Black-throated Accentor Prunella atrogularis (Ligury 2019; 2nd
record); Blyth’s Pipit Anthus godlewskii (Latium 2019, 3^rd record). The
addition of Rüppel’s Vulture and Red-eyed Vireo brings the Italian list to 550 accepted
species. Rejected records (COI List 5A, 5B) were: Iberian Chiffchaff
Phylloscopus ibericus (two records, both Latium 2016); ‘Sykes’s Yellow Wagtail’
Motacilla flava bema (two records: Tuscany 1989; Calabria 2019); Eastern
Orphean Warbler Sylvia crassirostris (Tuscany, 2019). Two records are still
pending and are not included here.

This column aims to collect a series of interesting observations and to make it accessible to the scientific community in
future. We collect observations without time, space or species limitation but we focus on a limited series of category of
interest. See more on Avocetta website: https://www.avocetta.org/bird-news-column/

Review of the recently published book:

–       “All the birds of the
world”del Hoyo, J. (Ed.) (2020). Lynx Edicions:
Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-16728-37-4. 968 pp.

Roulin A., 2020. Barn owls: evolution and ecology. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK. 297 p.