Artur Goławski

• PhD
• Professor at University of Siedlce

Rivers are important habitats for many waterbird species, offering crucial resources such as feeding and resting areas during migration. The migratory patterns of these birds are influenced by a variety of factors, including geographical location, habitat availability and environmental conditions. Despite the huge ecological importance of rivers, t...

The increasing demand for energy, coupled with the imperative to curtail the combustion of natural raw materials and mitigate global warming, necessitates the exploitation of alternative energy sources. Renewable energy sources include solar energy plants (PV), however research on the effects of utility-scale plants on fauna has been limited. Most...

Human activities often negatively affect the time birds spend on activities such as parental care, foraging and resting. Forms of antipredator behaviour among birds such as vigilance can be an adaptation to human disturbances which can enhance their fitness in human-managed habitats. We studied the flight initiation distance (FID) of White Storks C...

Farmland, a vital terrestrial environment, has seen significant changes due to intensified agricultural practices and plastic pollution. Assessing plastic pollution in farmed areas remains challenging, and understanding its impacts on agricultural ecosystems is limited. The aim of the was to determine whether plastic pollution in agricultural lands...

Our study reveals for the first time in a quantitative manner the differences in eggshell thickness and elemental composition between pigment spots and adjacent plain eggshell regions in bird species from three developmental modes, i.e. altricial (Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus), semi-precocial (Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridib...

Increased tourism pressure modifies animal behavior, including alterations in anti-predator responses and foraging activity. In areas with high tourist presence, animals may become accustomed to increased human activity and adjust the intensity of some defensive responses. An animal’s anti-predation ability is usually estimated by measuring its Ale...

The reaction of birds to the nest parasite, the European cuckoo Cuculus canorus, has been the subject of extensive testing in various aspects. However, while the cuckoo is a long-distance migrant, some of its hosts are sedentary species. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether species, primarily hosts, react to the presence of the cuckoo als...

Birds select breeding territories by assessing territory quality and considering predation pressure. However, in many small passerines, brood parasitism may also play an important role in territory occupancy. Settlement decisions are made under time pressure, especially for late migrants. An example of late migrants is the red-backed shrike Lanius...

Human activities often negatively affect the time birds spend on activities such as parental care, foraging and resting. Forms of antipredator behaviour among birds such as vigilance can be an adaptation to human disturbances which can enhance their fitness in human‐managed habitats. We studied the flight initiation distance (FID) of White Storks C...

The composition of assemblages, diet and behavior of waterbird species with similar ecological features are important aspects in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Closely related animal species often share resources such as space and food in ways that reduce competition, but if the diets of different species strongly overlap, interspecific com...

Escape behavior is a common antipredator strategy among wild animals. Here, we investigated the effect of four factors on the vigilance behavior of the endemic Cyprus rock agama (Laudakia cypriaca). Flight initiation distance (FID, the minimum distance to which an observer can approach a lizard before it flees) was measured in relation to the type...

Bird species that have visual differences in plumage coloration between young and older males may also differ in their song parameters. We have studied the difference in song rate between yearlings vs. older males in the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina, a species with delayed plumage maturation. Yearlings sang 2.3 more strophes per minute comp...

Brood survival as an expression of breeding success is a component of bird fitness and the principal parameter underlying bird population dynamics. The main factor limiting brood survival is predation pressure, and birds have developed anti-predator strategies by selecting safer places for building nests and breeding. Here, we examined whether nest...

Aphis fabae Scop. is phloem-feeding insect that cause substantial damage to horticulare and agriculture worldwide due to feeding – related damage and the transmission of economically important plant viruses. These aphids cause a detrimental effects in attacked organs, like depletion of photoassimilates. Insect feeding can among others reduced chlor...

Climate change has affected the breeding parameters of many animal species. In birds, most studies have focused on the effects of temperature on clutch phenology and clutch size. The long-term influence of other weather factors, including rainfall, on breeding parameters have been analysed much less often. Based on a 23-year dataset and 308 broods,...

In large parts of Europe biodiversity in agricultural landscapes has experienced strong declines over the past decades because of land-use change and intensification of cultivation methods, but more recently also due to modernization of villages. One of the aspects of modernization is the arising of large specialized poultry and pig farms. Our stud...

Water level appears to be crucial for waterbirds, especially in the changeable conditions prevailing in river valleys. One of the best preserved Central European rivers is the Biebrza in north-eastern Poland, which seasonally overflows in spring, creating optimal habitats for various waterbirds. We examined a number of environmental factors which c...

Water is crucial for birds, especially during hot weather. However, the availability of water, and its use by birds in modern anthropogenic habitats, is far from understood, especially outside arid regions. Here, we analyze a large nationwide dataset collected in the temperate zone and present an overview of small water resources used by birds in u...

Nest-boxes are often used for many bird species, not only passerine hole-nesters but also birds of prey. Increasing the availability of nest-sites, including artificial ones, is one strategy of habitat enhancement with specific conservations goals. One of the species that willingly inhabits boxes is the Kestrel Falco tinnunculus. We studied the inf...

Many animals, including shrikes (Laniidae), are known to store food. This behaviour ensures food availability during inclement weather, for rearing nestlings or signalling territory quality. Unlike most other shrike species, which accumulate food before breeding, Red‐backed Shrikes Lanius collurio store food in larders, mainly during the nestling a...

Minimizing disturbance to animals when studying them should be a major consideration in ecological research design, especially when species are known to be sensitive to disturbances. A basic method in the study of bird reproductive ecology involves nest visits, but these can adversely affect birds’ breeding success. Appropriate fieldwork procedures...

Post-natal growth has long-term consequences for survival and fitness in birds and is subject to strong directional selection. Highly variable patterns of nestling development are influenced by an array of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. This study analysed the impacts of hatching order, nestling subperiod, brood size and weather conditions, all o...

Capsule. The diet of the Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor during the non-breeding period was assessed using analysis of pellets and larders. The two methods gave different results but together showed a preference for voles, crickets and dung beetles. Aims. To describe the diet composition of the Great Grey Shrike based on analyses of the contents...

The intensification of farm management practices on grasslands has reduced the abundance of many species of animals. Mowing, a procedure essential to the continuing existence of farmland meadows, inevitably causes mortality among the animals inhabiting them, especially invertebrates, and exposes sites where white storks Ciconia ciconia can forage c...

Artificial nests like nest boxes are commonly used to improve the reproductive output and population status of wild birds and advance our understanding of their evolutionary ecology. To investigate how the location of nest boxes and local weather conditions affect Common Kestrel reproduction (number of fledglings), 319 broods from 173 nest boxes in...

Birds can adapt to urban areas by modifying their foraging behaviours to exploit novel urban food sources, which are far more diverse than in the country. Neophobia, the fear of novelty, can lead to missed new sources of food. Urban populations of birds usually display a lesser level of neophobia than rural populations. We examined the response of...

The distribution of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Leiopicus medius) is restricted to mature deciduous forests with large trees, mainly oaks (Quercus spp.). Intensive forest management resulted in the loss of many suitable habitats, thus resulting in a decline in the population of this species. This study aimed to identify the parameters of foragin...

The Smooth Newt Lissotriton vulgaris is a hibernating amphibian, whose winter activity in central and eastern Europe is very rarely observed. We found seven Smooth Newts in late November and early December in eastern Poland in larders of the Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor. The amphibians had probably been caught by the shrike while it was looki...

Providing artificial eggs is a commonly used technique to understand brood parasitism, mainly by the common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ). However, the presence of a cuckoo egg in the host nest would also require an earlier physical presence of the common cuckoo within the host territory. During our study of the red-backed shrike ( Lanius collurio ),...

Background One important anti‐predator strategy adopted by birds involves nest site selection and timing of breeding. Nest-site selection by marsh-nesting birds often involves nest concealment and water depth as key features influencing nest survival. Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is an obligate ground nester, which sets it apart from other ra...

Thioredoxins (Trxs) and thioredoxin reductases (TrxRs) encompass a highly complex network involved in sustaining thiol-based redox homeostasis in plant tissues. The purpose of the study was to gain a new insight into transcriptional reprogramming of the several genes involved in functioning of Trx/TrxR system in maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings, expos...

Introduction Ticks constitute a vector and reservoir of numerous pathogens. In Poland, especially in the eastern part of country, ticks pose an epidemiological threat to humans and animals, both domestic and wild. Health education is the least expensive and often the most effective form of prevention of tick-borne diseases, therefore should be supp...

In situations of restricted food supply, the trophic niches of closely-related species of animals should be separate. For sit-and-wait hunters, such as shrikes, this is associated with competition for food and hunting sites. In the present study, the foraging behaviour of two shrike species – Red-tailed Shrike Lanius phoenicuroides and Red-backed S...

Domestic and wild mammals, domestic birds and particularly wild birds are considered to be reservoirs of many species of Enterobacteriaceae, and also important human enteric pathogens, e.g., the bacteria of the genus Campylobacter that occur in their digestive tracts. These species may be vectors of antimicrobial resistance dissemination in the env...

Food storing is a well-known phenomenon among birds, described in shrikes Laniidae. The preferred explanation suggests that its function is to signify male quality to females and to mark territorial borders during the mating period. The importance of food storing must vary among different species, however, because in the Red-backed Shrike Lanius co...

Natural sands and gravels have been a basic raw material for building ever since the dawn of civilisation. Even though the natural environment is transformed and may be degraded by gravel pits, these areas create wholly new conditions for the development of interesting assemblages of avifauna. This study was conducted in 2013–2016 in 64 gravel pits...

Urban and rural habitats provide different conditions to wintering birds mainly due to different access to bird feeders. Returning to the food sources, even under the stress related to trapping, could play an important role in the energetic budget of wintering birds. We studied the duration of period between the first and the second capture of the...

Nests should be built on sites that provide optimal conditions for reproduction, so nest site characteristics are assumed to have an adaptive value. In this paper, we compared the hatching success of two species of terns: Black Tern (Chlidonias niger) (a non-expanding species) and White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) (an expanding species, ne...

In males of many bird species, plumage coloration and song characteristics can change with age. In the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina delayed plumage maturation is observed, young males are duller than older ones and are similar to females. To date, variation in song parameters at a microgeographic scale and between various populations from...

Utilisation of food resources in migrant and resident birds living sympatrically often leads to differences in feeding strategy. For sit-and-wait hunters such as shrikes, it is connected with competition for food and hunting places. In this study, foraging behaviour of three shrike species was studied in savanna-like habitat in southern Africa. The...

Birds show considerable variation in egg size, both within and between clutches. There are many factors affecting egg dimensions including features of the birds themselves, territory quality, food abundance and weather conditions. One feature that varies in clutches is repeatability of egg dimensions within a clutch. We studied variation in egg siz...

Many birds are advancing their migratory phenology and arriving earlier at their spring staging areas in response to climate warming. The duration of the spring migration of geese depends on the interaction between feeding conditions and dates. We studied White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons and Bean Geese Anser fabalis staging at stopover sites in...

The red-footed falcon Falco vespertinus inhabiting SE Europe is known for its irruptive migrations. Here we attempt to outline the causes (weather conditions, dietary composition etc.) of the irrup-tions in 2014-2016 in east-central Poland. From 2004 to 2016 a total of 2873 falcons were counted during 542 observation bouts. The speeds of E and SE w...

The aim of this work was to analyse assemblages of wintering birds in three areas of central Europe, that differ in climate: eastern Poland, northern Poland and western Germany in winter in 2003-2009. The severity of winter moderates distinctly from eastern Poland to Germany, so there ought to be more species and larger numbers of birds in Germany....

Identifying the key factors governing the expansion of a species’ range is difficult because of the multiple interactions of environmental and biological factors. Among the biological factors are breeding parameters, which at the edge of a species’ range may indicate the traits involved in limiting species distribution. To evaluate whether the hatc...

The implementation of agri-environment schemes (AES) in Poland began in 2004, yet the effects of their implementation were not systematically monitored until 2010. Using monitoring data collected in 2011 from two regions of Poland, the foothills and the lowlands, we examined the impact of environmental variables and the AES on 1) the number of spec...

This paper presents the results of waterbird counts performed in lower basins of the Bug (1993, 2011) and the Narew River Valleys (1998–1999, 2015). These sites are recognised as Special Protection Areas under the Birds Directive of Natura 2000 network. Numbers of 21/22 species (in the Narew and Bug River Valley, respectively) declined throughout t...

Peripheral populations that are expanding their distribution often colonise habitats that are different from the centre of their distribution range. These less optimal areas could have an adverse effect on their breeding success. Consequently, the production of individuals in these populations must be high if the expansion is to continue. The White...

Urban environments cover vast areas with a high density of humans and their dogs and cats causing problems for exploitation of new resources by wild animals. Such resources facilitate colonization by individuals with a high level of neophilia predicting that urban animals should show more neophilia than rural conspecifics. We provided bird-feeders...

Numerous studies have shown that local climatic conditions influence reproduction in birds. Although the effect of weather on brood success has often been tested, its influence on brood reduction has generally been overlooked. Such losses are common in raptors, because asynchronous hatching and the consequent age differences between nestlings gover...

Capsule: Evidence from two tern species does not support the theory that species in expansion should bias their brood sex ratios towards the more dispersing sex. Aims: Sex ratio theory predicts that when a species is in expansion, the sex ratio should be biased towards the more dispersing sex. We compared the sex ratio of nestlings in two closely r...

Bird feeding is one of the most widespread direct interactions between man and nature, and this has important social and environmental consequences. However, this activity can differ between rural and urban habitats, due to inter alia habitat structure, human behaviour and the composition of wintering bird communities. We counted birds in 156 squar...

Adapting to exploit new food sources may be essential, particularly in winter, when the impact of food limitation on survival of individuals is critical. One of the most important additional sources of food for birds in human settlements is birdfeeders. At a large spatial scale, we experimentally provided birdfeeders with four different kinds of fo...

Urban development has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, including birds. In this paper, we analysed differences in the numbers of wintering birds between rural and urban areas in Poland. We also analysed species richness and abundance in relation to longitude, latitude, human population size, and lan...

Winter is one of the crucial periods of the bird’s year-round life cycle. Fat reserves in bird species are prone to a wide range of factors, with weather conditions and a bird’s social status being two major ones. In our study we analysed the variation in fat reserves in birds with stable, constant access to food resources in three of the most comm...

The role of granivorous birds as agents of seed dispersal has been little explored and is poorly understood. We assessed the ability of three species of birds from a Central European agricultural landscape to disperse seeds of dry-fruited plants. We hypothesised that Grey Partridge Perdix perdix is a better seed disperser than either of two species...

Animals respond to approaching predators by taking flight at a distance that optimizes the costs and benefits of such flight. Previous studies have shown that urban populations of birds have shorter flight initiation distances than rural populations of the same species, that this difference is partly explained by differences in the community of pre...

Animals respond to approaching predators by taking flight at a distance that optimizes the costs and benefits of such flight. Previous studies have shown that urban populations of birds have shorter flight initiation distances than rural populations of the same species, that this difference is partly explained by differences in the community of pre...

In the last 20 years, a westward expansion of the White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) has been reported in Europe. Even though this species has become a regular breeder in some places, we lack basic information on the choice of breeding sites. The aim of the present work is to compare the habitat preferences of two closely-related species: t...

We compared results of counts of non-breeding ducks (including mergansers) during their spring migration in the southern part of the Biebrza river valley conducted in 2013 and 2014. Birds were simultaneously counted with two methods: from the river bank and from the boat. There is a limited access to the valley of Biebrza River between Osowiec and...

The toxicity effect of Concanavalin A (Canavalia ensiformis lectin, ConA) to bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi L. (Hemiptera: Aphididae), was investigated in the laboratory by using artificial diets containing ConA concentrations. Bird cherry-oat aphid performance was affected by the presence of Con A in artificial diets. The lectin added i...

Capsule Composition of Yellowhammer diet differed significantly between two major habitat categories: semi-natural (fallow lands, abandoned grassland and road verges) and agricultural habitats (managed fields, stubble fields and manure heaps). Semi-natural habitats and winter stubble fields were important sources of non-cereal plant food and plant...

Natural riverbeds in arid regions of Central Asia play an important role in waterbird migration. However, agricultural irrigation in the Aral Sea basin, in combination with climate change, is leading to wetland habitat loss. In this study, we consider the importance of the 2 largest river systems in this region during postbreeding movements and com...

One of the most important factors influencing breeding success in many bird species is predation. Nest site choice is one way of lowering the probability of such losses. In an agricultural landscape of eastern Poland, we examined the relationship between red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) nest site characteristics, i.e., height above ground, conce...

The effects of two polyphenolic flavonoids (flavanone naringenin and flavonol quercetin) on development, fecundity, and mortality of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris (Hemiptera: Aphididae), were determined in vitro, on an artificial diets. Also determined in vitro (DC EPG method), on sucrose-agarose gels, were the effects of flavonoids on...

The effects of novel chemicals on aphid probing and feeding can be more easily studied in gels than in plants, therefore we investigated whether aphid probing behavior, is similar on agarose-sucrose gels vs. plants. Electrical penetration graphs (DC EPG) were used to monitor the probing/feeding behavior of the bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum p...

Występowanie lęgowych kolonii rybitwy białoskrzydłej Chlidonias leucopterus, rybitwy czarnej Ch. niger i rybitwy białowąsej Ch. hybrida na Nizinie Mazowieckiej w roku 2013 Liczebność krajowych populacji lęgowych trzech gatunków rybitw z rodzaju Chlidonias cechuje się znacznymi fluktuacjami. Rybitwa białowąsa Chlidonias hybrida od początku lat 1990....

In 2012-2014, the third inventory of selected bird species was conducted during the breeding season. Changes in the number of breeding pairs of 41 species were determined in the period 1984-2014. After three decades, significant changes in numbers of the majority of breeding species were noted. The progressive group comprised only 11 species: the M...

Abstrakt: W niniejszej pracy scharakteryzowano podstawowe parametry lęgowe rybitwy czar-nej Chlidonias niger dla kolonii zlokalizowanych na trzech starorzeczach w dolinie dolnego Bugu w środkowo-wschodniej Polsce. Badania prowadzono w latach 2007–2008. W trakcie dwóch sezo-nów opisano losy 122 lęgów, spośród około 240 par gniazdujących w tym czasie...

Abstrakt: W latach 2007–2009, na podstawie kontroli 12 gniazd bąka Botaurus stellaris i 9 gniazd czapli siwej Ardea cinerea określono wybrane parametry rozrodu obu gatunków na stawach ho-dowlanych w Siedlcach. Większość lęgów bąka była usytuowana w szuwarze trzcinowym, zaś czaple siwe gniazdowały wyłącznie w szuwarze pałkowym. Gniazda czapli siwej...

Studies of the relationships between insectivorous birds and insects have focused on woodland habitats, where insects have usually been regarded as tree pests. But some insects are of the utmost importance to the human economy, especially hymenopterans, which pollinate plants such as fruit trees in orchards. Here we report on a 5-year study of the...

Abstract: In 2010-2013, numbers of 41 breeding bird species were estimated on 13 complexes of fish ponds located in central part of the South-Podlasian Lowland. Comparable data were obtained for a total of 45 species of waterbirds observed in two periods of 1987-2013, and for 22 species in three periods (1966-1970; 1987-1993; 2010-2013). In recent...

In the current work, the toxicity and mechanism of phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), lectin isolated from the kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) to the grain aphid (Sitobion avenae F.) were studied. When S. avenae was fed an artificial diet containing the lectin PHA, toxicity assays indicated that fecundity decreased, the pre-reproductive period and generat...