Gabriel Gargallo

Catalan Ornithological Institute | ICO · Direction

Avian influenza (AI) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects primarily poultry and wild water birds. There have been continued outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in both poultry and wild bird flocks. We aim to capitalise on the existence of large citizen datasets on abundance and distribution of 12 wild bird species to...

Migration of wild birds, particularly waterfowl, constitutes one mechanism by which Avian influenza (AI) is spread geographically. Good quantitative measures of the seasonal distribution of waterfowl can be useful in predicting the potential spread of AI outbreaks. Here we present European-scale modelling results for five species of duck, five spec...

The Eurasian Scops-owl (Otus scops) is the only European Owl that undertakes a long migration south of the Sahara desert. The breeding ecology of the species in southern and eastern Europe is better known but the migration ecology and wintering areas in the Afrotropical region are poorly known. We present data on the passage of Eurasian Scops-owls...

Marmora’s Warbler ( Curruca sarda ) and Balearic Warbler ( C. balearica ) are allopatric sibling species and were recently split mostly based on morphological and ethological characteristics. Here we provide the first phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses of this species complex to support the taxonomic status of C. sarda and C. balearica in li...

Biodiversity is threatened by the growth of urban areas. However, it is still poorly understood how animals can cope with and adapt to these rapid and dramatic transformations of natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic provides us with a unique opportunity to unveil the mechanisms involved in this process. Lockdown measures imposed in most coun...

La sinistralitat animal causada per les estructures humanes (p.ex. carreteres, línies elèctriques, vidres) és un problema que afecta a gran nombre de vertebrats terrestres. No obstant això, el coneixement que tenim sobre aquesta problemàtica és encara molt parcial. A més, el fet que es tracti d'una problemàtica que es dóna arreu del territori dific...

Biodiversity is threatened by the current exponential growth of urban areas. However, it is still poorly understood how animals can cope with and adapt to these rapid and dramatic transformations of natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic provides us with a unique opportunity to unveil the adaptive mechanisms involved in this process. Lockdown...

Durant el confinament, la majoria de nosaltres hem passat les hores tancats a casa i les ciutats s’han convertit en espais silenciosos i sense activitat humana. Mirar ocells des de la finestra, el balcó o el terrat de casa ha proporcionat informació sobre canvis en el comportament dels ocells davant una situació excepcional. Aquí s’exposen els resu...

Measures of fitness such as reproductive performance are considered reliable indicators of habitat quality for a species. Such measures are, however, only available in a restricted number of sites, which prevents them from being used to quantify habitat quality across landscapes or regions. Alternatively, species presence records can be used along...

In the last decade, new technologies changed the way to collect, store and share scientific data. In this context, citizens now directly contribute to the conservation of wild populations. Actually, co-ordinated citizen science surveys ensure that the distributions and population trends of European breeding birds are relatively well documented, as...

Measures of fitness such as reproductive performance are considered reliable indicators of habitat quality for a species. Such measures are, however, only available in a restricted number of sites, which prevents them from being used to quantify habitat quality across landscapes or regions. Alternatively, species presence records can be used along...

Co-ordinated Citizen Science surveys have ensured that the distributions and population trends of European breeding birds are relatively well documented, as are the mid-winter distributions and abundances of wintering waterfowl. However, the majority of European bird populations are migratory and there are huge gaps in our knowledge of their distri...

Populations of migratory songbirds in western Europe show considerable variation in population trends between both species and regions. The demographic and environmental causes of these large-scale patterns are poorly understood. Using data from Constant Effort mist-netting studies, we investigated relationships between changes in abundance, adult...

Investigators studying the stopover ecology of migrating birds typically use the capture–recapture method to examine important parameters such as fuel deposition rates (FDR) and stopover duration. However, such studies can be constrained by the number of recaptures. An alternative method is to calculate a regression of mass over time of day, but th...

Study on capture of Finches used for song competition, a traditional activity not properly evaluated yet. Los objetivos de este estudio fueron 1) Identificar los impactos de la captura de fringílidos (Carduelis carduelis, C. chloris, C. cannabina y Fringilla coelebs) sobre las poblaciones naturales en Cataluña 2) Determinar el límite máximo sosten...

EuroBirdPortal (EBP) is a new initiative that will combine data from on-line recording schemes to model the distributions, abundances and phenology of European birds throughout the year. The project currently collates data from over 100,000 observers in 21 European countries, with an initial data set covering 55 species from 2010 to 2013. The EBP w...

AimAs global temperatures have increased, many species distributions have exhibited polewards shifts, a trend that is predicted to continue in future decades. However, the mechanisms underlying such shifts are not well understood. Here we quantify the impact of large-scale variation in temperature on reproductive output within a group of migratory...

To improve knowledge of the different migratory strategies used by European trans-Saharan migrants to cross the Sahara Desert in autumn and the role of desert oases, we collected field data on body condition and stopover behaviour at Yasmina, a tiny oasis in southeast Morocco. Of 13 species studied, those best adapted to dry habitats, with breeding...

Capsule Arrival fuel load of migratory passerine birds after the Sahara crossing in spring varied between oases of different habitat quality. Aims To test: (1) if spring migrants reaching northern Africa with low fuel stopover in oases of species-specific suitable habitat; (2) whether migrants have sufficient fuel loads to reach southern Europe; an...

Every spring, long-Distance Palaearctic migrants return to Europe from their sub-Saharan wintering grounds after having crossed two large geographical barriers in near succession, the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea. This journey is particularly demanding at this time of year because birds need to reach their breeding grounds as soon as pos...

Birds undergoing a partial moult have to make important decisions regarding moult extent, pattern and sequence. Moreover, since partial moults are usually subject to a great degree of individual variability, the mechanisms controlling and organising such moults can be particularly complex. In the present paper, I investigate the feather selection a...

Nectar exploitation by songbirds at Mediterranean stopover sites. The nectar use by songbirds in Europe is reported by many authors but several of them refer to local or occasional events on both introduced and native plants. A study carried out on Ventotene Island (Italy) shows that nectar could be an important food resource for migrants which lan...

Contrary to earlier accounts, this paper suggests that both first-year and adult Penduline Tits undertake a partial prenuptial moult. This moult is more extensive in first-year birds than adults and includes the replacement of body feathers, marginal and median wing coverts and a variable number of greater coverts, rectrices and inner remiges. Most...

Sex is a fundamental parameter in many studies of bird populations based on ringing data. More than 50% of the passerine species occurring in the Western Palearctic are monochromatic and are not regularly sexed when captured for ringing. We present here discriminant functions for determining the sex of 25 passerine species that breed in Cataloni...

The subalpine warbler Sylvia cantillans is formally considered a polytypic species, with four subspecies, European S. c. cantillans, albistriata, moltonii (recently resumed name: subalpina) and North African S. c.inornata. They are very similar in external morphology but clearly differ in their vocalizations. We evaluated their uncertain taxonomic...

Es va revisar la muda de rèmiges de 28 adults i 21 ocells de primer hivern capturats al salobrar de Campos, Mallorca, entre el 23 de novembre i el 16 de desembre de 1991. La intensitat de la muda postnupcial va ser força baixa; només 6 (30%) de 20 ocells que no havien acabat la muda estaven en muda activa, amb una mitjana d'una ploma en creixement...

Post-disturbance survival is a key factor in the onset of secondary successions. Here we analyse capture-recapture data from two before/after disturbance studies to estimate the effect of fire on local bird survival. Analyses of six bird species at two Mediterranean shrubland sites were combined using a meta-analysis approach. Two warblers, Sylvia...

A major new book on the warblers of the genus Sylvia (Shirihai et al. 2001) will treat the taxonomy and identification of this intriguing group of passerines in greater depth than has ever been attempted before. Here, we present a shortened adaptation of that book's text dealing with Marmora's Warbler S. sarda. of particular interest is the treatme...

Based on phylogenetic research, this complete study of the genus Sylvia describes two new species and establishes identification criteria for all members of the family. A lengthy introduction explains the background to the research and outlines the main features of the genus. The 25 species are then treated in detail, including the African parisoma...

The population size of the Mediterranean Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis breeding on Cabrera archipelago was evaluated by using capture‐recapture techniques (du Feu estimation) with the aid of tape‐lures at the breeding colonies. Both sub‐adult and adult birds were attracted by the tape lures at a similar rate, and both age groups show...

This paper presents a new and reliable ageing criterion for Cetti's Warbler Cettia cetti. The method is based on the knowledge of the extent and pattern of post‐juvenile moult and the differences in colour and pattern between juvenile and adult feathers. The greater coverts and the innermost remiges appear to be the most useful feather tracts for d...

This paper describes the post‐juvenile moult of the Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita, Serin Serinus serinus, Greenfinch Carduelis chloris, Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis and Linnet Carduelis cannabina and the first pre‐nuptial moult of the Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator. These data are used to evaluate current ageing criteria for each species, and...