Population monitoring of the Little Owl Athene noctua in the Luberon Natural Regional Park (South-East France)

摘要

The reproduction of the Little Owl Athene noctua has been studied during 3 years in Southeastern France. About 100 nest boxes were supplied over a surface area of 100 km(2) of farmland. The number of nest boxes used by this species increased from 5 in 2006 to 13 in 2008. Breeding success (defined as the ratio between the number of ringed young before fledging and that of eggs laid) was of 71.4 in 2006, 41.0 in 2007 and 67.9 in 2006. Thus, the mean breeding success was of 60.1 %. Predation and nest desertion are the main factors of breeding failures.