Influences of coastal habitat characteristics on the distribution of Cory's Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea in the Azores archipelago

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2000

Authors

Furness, RW (Author) Other; Hilton, G (Author) Other; Monteiro, M (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Bird Study

Vol. 47

Pages: 257-265

ISSN: 0006-3657

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 8 Citations

Scopus - 8 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-YHG

DOI: 10.1080/00063650009461185

Abstract (EN): Behaviour of birds and radiotracking indicated that Gory's Shearwaters join rafts closest to the location of their nest site. Rafting numbers of Gory's Shearwaters per kilometre of coast were higher around Corvo than around other islands in the Azores archipelago. Densities were most closely correlated with the surface area of cliff in each coastal sector, both comparing between islands and across all coastal sectors in the archipelago. After accounting for effects of cliff area, residual densities of Gory's Shearwaters were weakly positively correlated with the presence of tern colonies in one analysis and negatively correlated with the presence of urban areas in another. However, there were no correlations with the presence of other breeding procellariiforms, which tended to occur only on small rat-free islets. In contrast to the situation in other parts of its range, in the Azores, Gory's Shearwaters appear to nest predominantly on large cliffs, which are free from human exploitation and may be relatively free from activities of cats and mts. As a result, the most important habitat for breeding Gory's Shearwaters in the Azores is inaccessible cliff on the large islands.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9