The Great White Egret in Europe: Population Increase and Range Expansion Since 1980 Łukasz Ławicki

The Great White Egret in Europe: population increase and range expansion since 1980 Łukasz Ławicki Abstract The European breeding and non-breeding populations of the Great White Egret Ardea alba have increased dramatically since 1980. During this period the breeding range has expanded to the north and west, and the species has nested for the first time in 13 countries, including Sweden and England. Since 2000 there has also been a substantial increase in the wintering populations in western and central Europe, where it formerly wintered in small numbers or only occasionally, with flocks of several hundred individuals reported from some countries. Changes in the availability of foraging habitat and food, the cessation of persecution and related human-induced mortality, improved legal protection, and climate change have probably all played a part in the patterns described here. The feathers of the male are much sought after as decorations, which in the East are a sign of great dignity and highly prized; formerly they were used in Europe as ornamentation by knights and the fair sex. (Taczanowski 1882) he Great White Egret Ardea alba is a Historical status and distribution cosmopolitan species, found on all It seems likely that Great White Egrets were Tcontinents except Antarctica in a common in central Europe in the past. In variety of wetland habitats where food (espe - Poland, for example, they were commonly cially fish) is available: marshes, river flood - hunted using Saker Falcons Falco cherrug plains, the margins of lakes, ponds and (Stajszczyk 2011). Historically, a core area of reservoirs, coasts, estuaries and mangrove the population was probably present-day thickets (Voisin 1991; Kushlan & Hancock Ukraine and Hungary. The only known Pleis - 2005). The wintering grounds of the nomin - tocene and Holocene fossil remains of the ate race, which breeds from Europe to Great White Egret in Europe come from eastern and southern Asia, lie mainly in the Ukraine and Hungary (Bocheński 1995), Mediterranean, sub-Saharan Africa and the while the extensive floodplains and marshes Persian Gulf, and eastwards into southern that existed until the mid nineteenth century China and South Korea (del Hoyo et al. in the region between the Danube and Tisza 1992). rivers (which flow through these two coun - In recent years, the Great White Egret’s tries) provided breeding grounds for many range and breeding population in Europe has wetland birds (Bauer & Glutz von Blotzheim expanded significantly. This article reviews 1966; Stajszczyk 2011). The first evidence of the expansion of both breeding and non- nesting by Great White Egrets in Bulgaria breeding populations in Europe since 1980. comes from the mid nineteenth century, 8 © British Birds 107 • January 2014 • 8–25 The Great White Egret in Europe when birds bred along the Danube, although breeding grounds. Former breeding sites, the records contain little detail (Peter Shu - abandoned in the late nineteenth century, rulinkov pers. comm.). After the breeding were recolonised – some 100 pairs were season, Great White Egrets appeared regu - breeding in the re-established colony on the larly to the north of their breeding grounds. Neusiedlersee in Austria in 1946, and the For example, in the early nineteenth century, population in Hungary increased to 33 pairs they were seen most years in Silesia in 1951. A pair nested in the Czech Republic (southern Poland), where, in 1863, a nest in 1949, and the species returned to Greece with young near Głogów was the first to breed in 1968 (Bauer & Glutz von breeding record for Poland (Tomiałojć & Blotzheim 1966; Cramp & Simmons 1977). Stawarczyk 2003). Sightings increased in central and western Firearms (which became readily available Europe throughout the 1970s as numbers and technically more advanced in the second swelled at traditional breeding grounds. At half of the nineteenth century) and the this time 260–330 pairs were nesting in advent of large-scale flood control and Hungary, and more than 300 pairs in Austria, wetland drainage led to the decline of many while in Ukraine and Russia northward species, including the Great White Egret. At expansion took place along the large rivers – roughly the same time, the use of egret the Dniester, Dnieper, Don, Volga and Ural plumes in the millinery trade became fash - (Cramp & Simmons 1977; Grishchenko ionable, and many adult egrets were killed 2011). In the 1970s nesting was suspected in during the breeding season, a slaughter that Belarus, and in 1977–78 breeding or ceased only in the second decade of the attempted breeding took place in the Nether - twentieth century, at least in eastern Europe lands, Latvia and southern Poland (Stawar - (Bauer & Glutz von Blotzheim 1966; Voisin czyk 1984; Perrins 1998; Bijlsma et al . 2001). 1991; Kushlan & Hancock 2005; Kushlan In the 1980s the species began to appear 2007; Grishchenko 2011). The combined more regularly in northern and northwestern effect of these various factors on the Great Europe. White Egret population was catastrophic and in most parts of Europe the species was all The expansion of the breeding and but exterminated. In the Iberian Peninsula, non-breeding populations of Great for example, there were no sightings between White Egret in Europe 1894 and 1965 (de Juana & Ferrer 1996); the Iberian Peninsula large breeding colony on Lake Neusiedl in Up to the mid 1990s small numbers of Great eastern Austria also disappeared; while in White Egrets occurred in Spain, with 5–20 Hungary, where in 1835 the population con - records annually (de Juana & Ferrer 1996). sisted of more than 230 pairs, a mere 25 pairs The first confirmed nesting took place in the remained by 1916. Somewhat larger numbers Ebro Delta in 1997, where the species has persisted in the Balkans, especially in the nested regularly since 2000 (Martí & Del Danube Delta, and in the south of the former Moral 2003). Subsequently, other breeding Soviet Union, where some 500 pairs were sites became established: Doñana in 1998, breeding in the Volga Delta in 1935 (Bauer & Albufera de Valencia in 2001, Azután Reser - Glutz von Blotzheim 1966; Cramp & voir, Toledo, in 2009, and Lake Sariñena, Simmons 1977; Grishchenko 2011). In the Huesca, in 2010. By 2011, the Spanish 1950s it also bred at many sites along the breeding population had reached 53 pairs at Danube in Bulgaria (Hristov et al . 2008), but 13 sites, with 28 pairs in Andalusia, 12 in more widely the Great White Egret was Catalonia and 10 in Castile–La Mancha generally a rare bird in western European in (Garrido et al . 2012). the early and middle parts of the twentieth Great White Egrets began wintering in the century. Iberian Peninsula in the early 1990s (de Towards the end of the twentieth century, Juana & Ferrer 1996); during a census in there was increasing evidence of recovery, winter 2010/11, almost 1,500 individuals reflecting the implementation of protective were counted in Spain, mainly in Catalonia measures for the species on its European and Andalusia (Garrido et al . 2012). The first British Birds 107 • January 2014 • 8–25 9 Ławicki l p . g n i h c t a W d r i B / i k s w e l e i g ę i z D w a ł s e i W 3. A flock of Great White Egrets Ardea alba in the Barycz river valley, Poland, October 2011. The fishponds in the Barycz valley are the most important area for this species in Poland during the non-breeding season, when more than 2,000 individuals congregate there. record from Portugal was in 1971, the second overwintered in Italy, but in winter 1989/90, not until 1988 (de Juana & Ferrer 1996) but 150 were recorded in the Po Delta (Volponi after 1988 the species was recorded annually & Emiliani 1995). Since then the numbers (with the exception of 1993) and in wintering have increased rapidly, to an esti - increasing numbers, for example 16 records mated 1,032 birds in 1991–95 and 2,830 in in 2001. 1996–2000 (Baccetti et al . 2002). There has Since 2000, small numbers have overwin - not been a more recent national estimate, but tered in Portugal but the current winter pop - data from key areas suggest a further ulation is estimated at 100–200 individuals increase. In Emilia-Romagna, for example, (Catry et al . 2010; Paulo Catry pers. comm.). the average winter population rose from 893 In addition, the increasing regularity of birds in 1994–2000 to 1,399 in 2001–05 and spring records suggests that birds may soon 1,840 in 2006–09 (Tinarelli et al . 2010). begin to nest in Portugal (João Jara pers. Sightings of colour-ringed birds wintering in comm.). Italy have established that these originate mainly from Hungary and Lake Neusiedl in Italy Austria, but birds from colonies on the The first confirmed breeding occurred in the northern shores of the Black Sea also over - Valli di Comacchio, Emilia-Romagna, in winter here (Spina & Volponi 2008). 1992 (Piacentini 1993) and the total for Italy increased to 23–24 nesting pairs by 1995 Former Yugoslavia (Brichetti & Cherubini 1996). More recently The Great White Egret currently nests in the species has colonised the Po valley, where Croatia and Serbia. In Croatia, the breeding 36–46 pairs bred in 1999–2002, mainly in population has increased from 7–15 pairs in Emilia-Romagna; currently, some 40–50 1993 (Perrins 1998) to 10–50 pairs in 2002 pairs nest in a number of colonies in the (BirdLife International 2004), then 115–180 central and eastern Po Delta (Brichetti & Fra - pairs in 2004–10 (Tutiš et al . 2013; Jelena casso 2003; Spina & Volponi 2008; Gustin et Kralj pers. comm.). The current wintering al . 2009). population is estimated at 1,000–1,500 birds, Until the late 1980s the species rarely although in some mild winters it may reach 10 British Birds 107 • January 2014 • 8–25 The Great White Egret in Europe over 3,500 (Tutiš et al .

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