Night Predatory Birds Conservation Program of Vitoria-Gasteiz

Description

This program is based on the participation of the citizen in order to gather knowledge about the night predatory birds of Vitoria-Gasteiz to develop more efficient biodiversity conservation policies. This is the seventh program included in our Citizen Science project (Net of Citizen Science of Vitoria-Gasteiz) created by the Environmental Research Center of Vitoria-Gasteiz city council and organized by Ataria (the Interpretation Centre of the Salburua Wetlands). This project is based on the sampling work of volunteer citizens of different knowledge and origin. Each participant has a to go to its plot once a month among february and june in order to identify night predatory birds´ species. In this case, they note down all the species that they hear during 15 minutes: 5 minutes in silence, 5 minutes with a decoy and 5 minutes in silence. The decoy is different depending on the month: february-tawny owl, march-long-eared owl, april-barn owl, may-eurasian scops owl, june-little owl. Then, the results obtained in that samplings have to be uploaded to the online platform Ornitho. Finally, the results of all participants are analyzed by the expert coordinador to get an annual memory of the night predatory birds of Vitoria-Gasteiz and receive conclusions about the conservation of the biodiversity.

Aim

The main objective of this program is monitoring of the populations of the night predatory birds of the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The species of interest are: tawny owl, long-eared owl, barn owl, eurasian scops owl, little owl. Despite of not being predatory, the european nightjar is another species of interest. There are also some specific aims: -Creating an indicator based on its populations to achive information about conservation. -Increasing the information about the ecology of these species. -Sensibilizating about the importance of having these species in urban and natural areas to avoid plagues and protect human health, ecosystems and biodiversity. -Eliminating the bad image of these species.

How to participate

Equipment

-Land-receipt (in the web). -Pencil and rubber. -Handbooks for identification (for hiring in Ataria). -A speaker for the decoys. -Protocol to upload the results to Ornitho (in the web).