
Tibor MikuskaCroatian Society for Birds and Nature Protection
Tibor Mikuska
Bsc,
About
70
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 1998 - September 2008
Kopacki rit Nature Park Management Office
Position
- Researcher
August 1994 - December 1997
Publications
Publications (70)
The regular winter waterbirds count is carried out every year in January as part of the international project IWC - International Waterbird Census. January is time when migratory birds are on their wintering grounds. Waterfowl occupy unfrozen water bodies to spend the winter there, so the best time to count them is when they are least likely to mov...
The conference was a follow up of previous international White-tailed Sea-Eagle conferences organised since 70-ties in Europe: in Finland (Lammi 1974, Tvärminne 1979), Norway (Svanöy 1976, Runde 1996), Poland (Zielonka 1991), Germany (Eutin 1998), Sweden (Björkö 2000) and Estonia (Roosta 2017).The conference provided a unique opportunity to strengt...
Sea‐level rise (SLR) is expected to cause major changes to coastal wetlands, which are among the world's most vulnerable ecosystems and are critical for nonbreeding waterbirds. Because strategies for adaptation to SLR, such as nature‐based solutions and designation of protected areas, can locally reduce the negative effects of coastal flooding unde...
Out of 11 geese species observed in Croatia (8 wild and 3 escaped) only two of
them regularly winter: Greylag goose Anser anser and Greater White-fronted
goose Anser albifrons. Based on data from IWC (1999-2022) both species have
an increasing trend in wintering numbers. Their main wintering areas are
situated in the northern, Pannonian part of Cro...
Preliminary results of the national breeding population censuses of colonial herons, egrets, spoonbills, ibises and cormorants during 2022/2023. Censuses were done within two national projects (SMART and OPPK).
Estimated numbers of breeding pairs (bp): Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) 3326 bp, Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 413 bp, Great Egret (Ardea alba...
The present study assessed for the first time the magnitude and dietary ecological source of total mercury (THg) exposure in a southern population of white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), an apex predator species shown valuable for environmental biomonitoring. This population depends on the Kopački rit Nature Park – the most important breedin...
Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia is a regular breeding bird species in Croatia whose population has been fairly well monitored since 1962. They bred in a single colony (Krapje Đol) until 1989 when the population dispersed due to drought and colonised new breeding sites, primarily man-made carp fishponds. Krapje Đol colony, situated in former...
White-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) is an apex predator, with high trophic position accumulating high concentrations of pollutants throughout their life. Their dietary habits depend on the available prey within their territories and consist mainly of fish, birds, mammals and carrion. White-tailed eagles are territorial, i.e., are resident wi...
The Rook (Corvus frugilegus L. 1758) is a breeding bird species in urban ecosystems in Europe. The aim of this research is to determine the size of the Rook population in the city of Osijek. The counting of pairs and the distribution of colonies were conducted during the spring from 2019 to 2023. The method of counting reliably active nests was use...
Climate change has been associated with both latitudinal and elevational shifts in species’ ranges. The extent, however, to which climate change has driven recent range shifts alongside other putative drivers remains uncertain. Here, we use the changing distributions of 378 European breeding bird species over 30 years to explore the putative driver...
The goal of the present study was to investigate differences in biomarker responses related to metal(loid)s in white stork Ciconia ciconia) nestling's blood from continental Croatia. To achieve this, a battery of biomarkers that can be affected by environmental pollutants, including metal(loid)s, was assessed (esterase activity, fluorescence-based...
The present study assessed the effect of agricultural practices on biomarker response in white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings from continental Croatia. During the breeding season of 2022, blood was sampled (n = 54) from the landfill Jakuševec and the agricultural areas Baranja and Srijem. Different patterns of biomarker response in regard to the...
Thermal adjustment of waterbird communities to climate warming is crucial but hampered by natural habitat conversion, increasing their climatic debt. As it is, in contrast, facilitated in protected areas, assessing the adequacy of the current protected areas network with respect to future climate and land-use changes and identifying priority sites...
Breeding of White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla in Kopački rit Nature Park is known since 19th century and it is continuous until these days. Breeding population has reached its minimum of 11 pairs during 1976 due to pesticide use and persecution, but the area still served as an oasis that enabled survival of remaining individuals. With legal p...
The present research provides data on the concentrations of metals: lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), and metalloids: arsenic (As), selenium (Se) in the blood of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings. Blood was sampled (n = 106) during breeding season 2021 in continental Croatia on seven locations: Jakuševec, Lonjsko polje, Crnac polje, Jela...
Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia is a regular breeding birds pecies in Croatia whose population has been fairly well monitored since 1962. They bred in a single colony (Krapje Djol) until 1989 when the population dispersed due to drought and colonised new breeding sites, primarily man-made carp fishponds. Krapje Djol colony, situated in forme...
Kopački rit is the best-preserved floodplain of large rivers and is a functional inner delta of the central Danube river. Stable populations of certain rare or endangered species of plants and animals live here. It is one of the last habitats for species that are exclusively associated with wet wetlands. The aim of this paper is to compare all hist...
Apex bird species, e.g. white stork (Ciconia ciconia), are non-target organisms to pollutant exposure in environments such as wetlands, agricultural ponds, or landfills. Their health status is influenced by their dietary habits, and their body content reflects pollutant levels in the food they forage in the vicinity of the breeding area. In season...
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is an abundant breeding species in continental Croatia, a top predator inhabiting mostly agricultural fields, wetlands, and meadows. White stork nestlings are a good bioindicator species providing information regarding the local environment. Due to environmental transformation and intensive agriculture, white stork...
White stork nestlings can provide quantitative data on the quality of the environment, as they are dependent on their parents that provide locally foraged food. Blood was sampled from the brachial vein (n = 109) and the sampling was performed in parallel with ringing during breeding season 2020 from five areas in eastern Croatia: Lonjsko polje, Jel...
Protected area networks help species respond to climate warming. However, the contribution of a site's environmental and conservation‐relevant characteristics to these responses is not well understood. We investigated how composition of nonbreeding waterbird communities (97 species) in the European Union Natura 2000 (N2K) network (3018 sites) chang...
Rivers of Europe, Second Edition, presents the latest update on the only primary source of complete and comparative baseline data on the biological and hydrological characteristics of more than 180 of the highest profile rivers in Europe. With even more full-color photographs and maps, the book includes conservation information on current patterns...
The dark form of Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae was observed on 22nd June 2021 in the Kopački rit Nature Park, in north-eastern Croatia, during regular bird monitoring. The bird was resting on the tree, and then flew away southwards. This is the first observation of this species in the Kopački rit Nature Park and the Baranja region in Croatia.
Nature park Kopački rit is the most important breeding site for white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Croatia. The present study therefore investigated the exposure of local eagle nestlings to mercury (Hg), an ubiquitous contaminant well-known to cause toxic effects in apex bird species. Nestling body feathers (n = 72) showed significant va...
Plastic pollution is an emerging concern, swiftly increasing in terrestrial ecosystem due to anthropogenic activities. Ingestion of plastic fragments (and other anthropogenic particles) is of special concern due to detrimental effects on apex predators, especially those with opportunistic dietary habits. White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are known to...
Enzyme activities are extensively used biomarkers to assess the response of organisms to various chemicals from the environment. Biomarkers of effect could be used for providing crucial information and identifying harmful effects on non-target avian organisms such as white stork (Ciconia ciconia). Since white stork is an altricial species, the nest...
The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot. Wetlands make a key contribution to this status, but many of them remain outside the Ramsar network fifty years after the establishment of the Ramsar Convention. Here we evaluate the extent to which the Mediterranean Ramsar network covers wetlands of international importance for wintering waterbird...
White stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings can provide quantitative information on the quality of the surrounding environment by indicating the presence of pollutants, as they depend on locally foraged food. This study represents the first comparison of biomarkers in two fractions of white stork nestling blood: plasma and S9 (the post-mitochondrial fr...
Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions, although many species show a so-called climatic debt, where their range shifts lag behind the fast shift in temperature isoclines. Protected areas (PAs) may impact the rate of distribution changes both positively and negatively. At the cold edges of species distributions, PAs can facilita...
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a breeding species in continental Croatia. It feeds usually close to the breeding site with small mammals, amphibians, snakes, fish, earthworms, large insects and their larvae in the flooded river plains, extensively farmed meadows and pastures or water meadows. White stork nestlings can provide quantitative inf...
Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so‐called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm‐dwelling spec...
This study represents the first analysis of heavy metals: lead and
cadmium, as well as two metalloids: arsenic and selenium, in the feathers of Grey Herons breeding in Croatia. The Grey Heron was chosen as a model apex predator of the wetland ecosystem due to high trophic level, feeding habits, long lifespan and abundance. Sampling was conducted du...
Apex predators, especially aquatic bird species, are proven to be relevant biomonitors for various xenobiotics, such as heavy metals due to their abundance, position in the food chain, and chemical exposure through diet. Considering all this, in the present study Grey Heron
(Ardea cinerea) was chosen as a model apex predator of the wetland ecosyste...
We made a rapid assessment of the impact of disturbances from tourism and kite-surfing on the resting and feeding of waterbirds at the Neretva river mouth, Croatia. The numbers of waterbird species were highest during early morning hours when no humans were present. With increasing numbers of people along the beaches and sandbars during the day, th...
In 2017, Wetlands International produced flyway population trends from the start of reliable International Waterbird Counts up to 2015, based on producing first national trends and using the available information to produce flyway trends. The results
of these trend analyses inform the listing of various waterbird species on Table 1 of the African-...
Genetic markers are a useful tool for bird population monitoring, especially when combined with ringing data, and particularly so in vulnerable species. This study compared the effectiveness of two DNA extraction methods: a standard protocol and a commercially available kit. The molecular sex-typing was performed using PCR-based methods with a 2550...
Understanding the migration routes of the Central European Spoonbill population is important for their conservation. Here we analysed movements of 3186 individuals of Eurasian Spoonbills marked with colour rings in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary, Croatia and Serbia) between 2003 and 2015, and a satellite tagged individual, which was equipped in Ital...
European populations of the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a drastic decline during the 20th century. In many countries, only a few dozen breeding pairs survived or the species disappeared completely. By today, the populations have recovered, naturally or through restocking (e.g. in Scotland or the Czech Republic). In the Carpat...
The study presents the diet of the Long-eared Owl at wintering roosts in rural areas of Strošinci, Drenovci, Bošnjaci and Županja in Županjska Posavina. The total of 1,073 pellets were collected during the winter of 2014/2015; they contained remains of 2,473 specimens belonging to 13 species of small mammals and two bird species. The average number...
The breeding population of Rook was studied during 2014-2015 in the city of Osijek and the Vuka village. In total, 902 breeding pairs were counted in 14 colonies in 2014, while 928 pairs were counted in 13 colonies in 2015. Over one half of the colonies (ten colonies in 2014 and six colonies in 2015) were classifid as small (below 50 pairs), with a...
Spoonbills colonies in Croatia are situated in hard-to-reach areas such as oxbows or large fishponds. They are built in extensive reedbeds or on the lower parts of willow trees in a way that their nests are inaccessible for the ground-dwelling predators and not visible for scientists from the ground or observation posts. Regular monitoring of the b...
Preliminary results of the White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, national breeding population census 2014/2015, as part of the 7th pan-European White Stork census. 1841 nests and 1741 pairs counted.
In January 2014, the first ever comprehensive winter census of the Whitetailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla along the Danube River was conducted, using mostly point and transect counts. Altogether, 550-700 eagles were counted. The upper range of the estimate may in fact be more realistic because 615 km of the Danube were not surveyed. Birds were obse...
White-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla [LINNAEUS, 1758]) populations in Europe suffered
a drastic decrease in the early 20th century. In the 1970s, the total Hungarian breeding population was
estimated to 10-12 pairs, all inhabiting the South Transdanubia. Nowadays, population size of the
country is more than 220 breeding pairs, with abundant br...
Data on the movement of immature Eurasian Spoonbills from the southern Pannonian Basin are presented for the first time and differences in migration patterns between the Atlantic and southern Pannonian breeding populations are identified. Movements of spoonbills from Western Europe are well known, but there is uncertainty about the movements of the...
The paper describes impacts of the main ecological factors on the development of horse fly populations in the alluvial floodplains of the Danube River in the Pannonian plain. The study has been conducted from 2004-2009 in the four, water dependent, succession stages of alluvial forest communities of Kopacki rit wetlands. In total more than 23 000 a...
Results of the monitoring of mixed heron and spoonbill colony in the Krapje Djol Special ornithological reserve (Lonjsko polje Nature park, Croatia) during 2010. Estimated numbers of breeding pairs (bp): Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) 60 bp, Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) 15 bp, Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 10 bp, Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 210...
This paper reviews the recent knowledge on the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla in Croatia. Data on distribution, population size, breeding success, wintering, habitat requirements, feeding biology, colour ringing programs, threats, birds in captivity and protection status are given. The Croatian population continually increased and was esti...
From 2003–2006, research on the breeding distribution of the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) was conducted in Croatia in order to assess the size of the national population. In 125 locations, clear signs of breeding
activity were found. An additional 10 presumably active territories were detected but it was not possible to locate the exac...
According to known population parameters, we used software Vortex for simulating long-term population dynamics of white tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla L.) on fourteen management options. The main purpose of the study was the assessment of the dispersion rate detection importance (integrating effects of persecution and permanent dispersion) for...
International Sand martin population research in the Central Danube floodplains and its surroundings – we started the investigation of the Sand martin population of the region along the river Danube and its floodplain from the Sió channel to the Drava river with different intensity in the past ten years in three countries (Hungary, Serbia and Croat...
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea is the most abundant heron
species in Croatia, with an estimated population
of 1500 − 3000 pairs. We conducted a survey of
existing colonies during the 2004 breeding season
and counted 3674 pairs in 19 colonies. Based on this
data the Grey Heron breeding population thresholds
should be increased and set to 3000 − 4000 pairs...
Nearly all North American heron populations are migratory, but details of where they winter are little known. Locations where North American herons winter were identified using banding recovery data. North American herons winter from Canada through northern South America but especially in eastern North America south of New York, Florida, California...