Biota from the coastal wetlands of Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal): Part 3 – Birds

Abstract Abstract

Background

The data presented here come from field observations of Aves between August 2013 and October 2018 as part of a LIFE research project aiming to preserve and restore three coastal wetlands from Praia da Vitória (Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal). Systematic monthly observations were carried out for five years in order to provide a checklist and monitoring of bird species and subspecies observed in three sites: Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP). Main objectives were to determine their ornithological richness while also adding data to the overall knowledge of Azorean Avifauna and to monitor seasonal and between-year variation on species abundance.

New information

During a five-year observation period (2013-2018), a total of 82,985 birds belonging to 108 species/subspecies were observed. From this, 16,663 were in PPV, 11,793 from PBJ and 54,529 from PPCP. The total richness was 55, 40 and 85, respectively. Three species are first records for the Azores: Aythya americana (Eyton, 1838); Chlidonias leucopterus (Temminck, 1815) and Tringa brevipes (Vieillot, 1816). One species is a new record for Terceira Island: Lophodytes cucullatus (Linnaeus, 1758).

Introduction

The Azorean Avifauna has been described in several publications, the most recent being Rodrigues et al. (2010), Rodebrand (2012) and Barcelos et al. (2015). Despite the fact that the Azorean list of breeding birds is short (37 species breeding and seven occasionally nesting; Rodrigues et al. 2010), as a consequence of dramatic extinction events (Rando et al. 2013, Alcover et al. 2015, Rando et al. 2017), those publications added numerous records of non-breeding landbird and waterbird species, particularly occasional migrant and wintering species. Those novelties are a consequence of an increase in birdwatching activity on several Azorean islands and an increased interest in rare Nearctic birds arriving to Azores (Alfrey et al. 2018), due to storms that divert birds from their normal migratory routes.

Three coastal wetlands from the municipality of Praia da Vitória (Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal) - Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) – were studied during the LIFE – Coastal Wetlands Restoration Project and are known as a high avifauna site attracting birdwatchers and which include an important number of species (Dias et al. 1991, Morton et al. 1997, Morton et al. 1998, Melo and Dias 2005, Pereira and Melo 2017). Pereira and Melo (2017) published a field guidebook on the bird species occurring in PPCP, highlighting the particular importance of this wetland for migrant species and regular and occasional wintering birds.

This manuscript is the third contribution in a series of papers that characterise the biota of the three coastal wetlands from this area (Borges et al. 2018, Gabriel et al. 2019).

General description

Purpose

The aim of this work is to inventory the avifauna present in the three coastal areas of Praia da Vitória (Terceira Island, Azores), focused on the LIFE-CWR Project, Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV) (Fig. 1), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) (Fig. 2) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) (Fig. 3), in order to improve our knowledge on the bird diversity that occurs in this area, detect eventual new species for the Azores and monitor seasonal and between-year variation on species abundance.

Figure 1.

General aspect of Paul da Praia da Vitória (Photo by Paulo A.V. Borges).

Figure 2.

General aspect of Paul Belo Jardim (Photo by Paulo A.V. Borges).

Figure 3.

General aspect of Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) (Photo by Paulo A.V. Borges).

Project description

Title

Inventory of bird species in three coastal wetlands from Terceira Island (Azores)

Personnel

The inventory was conducted during five years between August 2013 and October 2018 by experienced birdwatchers: Sofia Goulart, Mariana R. Brito and Sónia Santos.

Study area description

Terceira Island (area: 400.6 km²; elevation: 1,021.14 m) is one of the nine islands of the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic, roughly at 38°43'49''N 27°19'10''W (Forjaz et al. 2004). The climate in the Azores is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity and persistent western winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons (Azevedo et al. 1999).

Sampling methods

Study extent

This study covers a small coastal area with 3.58 km extension between PPV and PPCP.

Sampling description

At the three wetland sites, more than 788 days of observations were carried out for a total of ca. 11,820 h of direct observations. Each observation lasted 15 minutes in which every sighted bird was registered. These were made by experienced birdwatchers (two to three researchers in the field each day) using a Swarovski 20-60 telescope and Opticron Verano HD 10-42 binocular. Photographs were made with a Canon 60D camera (a database and Photo repository is available at http://lifecwr.com/index.php/pt/observacao/registos-de-observacao/registos-de-observacao-2). Whenever needed, several field-guides were used (e.g. Pereira 2010, Mullarney et al. 2012), as well as websites on Azorean birds, namely AVES DOS AÇORES, Azores bird sightings and Birding Azores.

Geographic coverage

Description

Praia da Vitória marshes, Terceira Island (Azores), Macaronesia, Portugal.

Coordinates

38º42'09''N and 38°44'12''N Latitude; 27º03'46''W and 27°02'39''W Longitude.

Taxonomic coverage

Description

Aves

Temporal coverage

Notes

Data range: August 2013 – October 2018.

Usage rights

Use license

Creative Commons Public Domain Waiver (CC-Zero)

Data resources

Data package title

LIFE_CWR_TER_Aves

Resource link

http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=azores_birds

Alternative identifiers

http://islandlab.uac.pt/software/ver.php?id=34

Number of data sets

1

Data set 1.

Data set name

Birds from Praia da Vitória marshes (Terceira, Azores, Portugal)

Data format

Darwin Core Archive

Number of columns

50

Download URL

http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=azores_birds

Data format version

version 1

Description

In this data table, we include all the records for which a taxonomic identification of the species was possible. The dataset submitted to GBIF is structured as a sample event dataset, with two tables: event (as core) and occurrences. The data in this sampling event resource have been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwCA), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 2003 records. One extension data table also exists. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated in the IPT link. This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for downloading in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time. In Suppl. material 1, we provide a simpler dataset with few columns in a single table.

Data set 1.

Column label	Column description
Table Event	Table Event
id	Unique identifier
type	Type of the record, as defined by the Public Core standard
licence	Reference to the licence under which the record is published
InstitutionID	The identity of the institution publishing the data
InstitutionCode	The code of the institution publishing the data
datasetName	Name of the dataset
eventID	Identifier of the events, unique for the dataset
eventDate	Date or date range the record was collected
startDayOfYear	The earliest ordinal day of the year on which the Event occurred (1 for 1 January, 365 for 31 December, except in a leap year, in which case it is 366)
year	Year
month	Month
day	Day
islandGroup	Archipelago of the sampling site
island	Island of the sampling site
country	Country of the sampling site
countryCode	ISO code of the country of the sampling site
county	Name of the county
locality	Name of the locality
minimumElevationInMeters	Minimum elevation in metres
maximumElevationInMeters	Maximum elevation in metres
verbatimCoordinates	Original coordinates recorded
decimalLatitude	Approximate centre point decimal latitude of the field site in GPS coordinates
decimalLongitude	Approximate centre point decimal longitude of the field site in GPS coordinates
geodeticDatum	The reference point for the various coordinate systems used in mapping the earth
Table Occurrences	Table of Occurrences
id	Unique identifier
modified	Date of the last modification of the record
language	A language of the resource
basisOfRecord	The nature of the data record
occurrenceID	Identifier of the record, coded as a global unique identifier
catalogNumber	Record number of the specimen in the collection
recordedBy	Name of the person who performed the sampling of the specimens
individualCount	Total number of individuals captured
organismQuantity	Total number of individuals captured, as numeric
organismQuantityType	The unit of the identification of the organisms
eventID	Identifier of the events, unique for the dataset
identifiedBy	Name of the person who made the identification
dateIdentified	Date on which the record was identified
scientificName	Complete scientific name including author and year
kingdom	Kingdom name
phylum	Phylum name
class	Class name
order	Order name
family	Family name
genus	Genus name
specificEpithet	Specific epithet
infraspecificEpithet	Infraspecific epithet, when available
taxonRank	Lowest taxonomic rank of the record
scientificNameAuthorship	Name of the author of the lowest taxon rank included in the record

Additional information

We observed and identified 82,985 birds belonging to 26 families, including 108 species or subspecies. Families Scolopacidae (32 species) and Anatidae (24 species) were the most diverse while three species corresponded to 47.8% of all observed/identified birds (Table 1): Calidris alba (18,856), Charadrius alexandrinus alexandrinus (10,726) and Arenaria interpres (10,074). The Order Charadriformes, with 63,671 individuals observed, corresponds to 75.7% of all birds from this work (Table 1). This abundance of waders is certainly an expected feature on wetlands. Eleven species were represented by a single individual observation and 38 by ten or less individuals.

Table 1.

List of Aves and their abundance in the three coastal wetlands of Praia da Vitória, Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal (Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP), indicating Order, Family and both breeding status (b) and colonisation status (END – endemic from Azores; MAC – endemic from Macaronesia; n = native non-endemic; i = introduced).

Order	Family	Taxon	Status	PPV	PBJ	PPCP	Total
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aix galericulata				1	1
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aix sponsa		1			1
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas acuta		302	1	96	399
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas americana		1237		33	1270
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas carolinensis				9	9
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas clypeata		1			1
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas crecca		94		235	329
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas discors		117		147	264
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas penelope		689		30	719
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas querquedula		14		16	30
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anas strepera		22			22
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Anser cygnoides		37			37
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya affinis		295		1	296
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya americana		27			27
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya collaris		531	6	38	575
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya ferina		12		3	15
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya fuligula		654		7	661
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Aythya marila		296			296
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Branta bernicla		7		3	10
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Branta canadensis		8			8
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Bucephala clangula				5	5
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Clangula hyemalis		4			4
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Lophodytes cucullatus		64			64
Anseriformes	Anatidae	Tadorna tadorna				14	14
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Charadrius alexandrinus alexandrinus	b / n	7	529	10190	10726
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Charadrius hiaticula			9	964	973
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Charadrius semipalmatus			2	124	126
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Pluvialis apricaria				18	18
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Pluvialis dominica				14	14
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Pluvialis fulva				18	18
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Pluvialis squatarola			225	2970	3195
Charadriiformes	Charadriidae	Vanellus vanellus				3	3
Charadriiformes	Haematopodidae	Haematopus ostralegus				1	1
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Chroicocephalus philadelphia				1	1
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Chroicocephalus ridibundus		95	425	71	591
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus argentatus			2		2
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus delawarensis			12		12
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus fuscus			153		153
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus glaucoides glaucoides			13	1	14
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus hyperboreus			7	1	8
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus marinus			70	2	72
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Larus michahellis atlantis	b / END	171	8893	731	9795
Charadriiformes	Laridae	Rissa tridactyla		2	4	2	8
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Actitis hypoleucos		3	1	14	18
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Actitis macularius				3	3
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Arenaria interpres			7	10067	10074
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris alba		5	370	18481	18856
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris alpina				557	557
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris bairdii				15	15
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris canutus				902	902
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris ferruginea				671	671
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris fuscicollis				381	381
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris mauri				2	2
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris melanotos				98	98
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris minuta				355	355
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris minutilla				46	46
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris pusilla		1		556	557
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Calidris temminckii				4	4
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Gallinago delicata				2	2
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Gallinago gallinago gallinago	b / n	1		22	23
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Limnodromus griseus				101	101
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Limnodromus scolopaceus				3	3
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Limosa lapponica				197	197
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Limosa limosa			1	2761	2762
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus				6	6
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Numenius phaeopus phaeopus			21	474	495
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Phalaropus fulicarius		2		84	86
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Phalaropus lobatus				23	23
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Philomachus pugnax				629	629
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tringa brevipes				15	15
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tringa flavipes		2		79	81
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tringa glareola				3	3
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tringa nebularia				16	16
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tringa totanus		2		210	212
Charadriiformes	Scolopacidae	Tryngites subruficollis				2	2
Charadriiformes	Sternidae	Chlidonias leucopterus				1	1
Charadriiformes	Sternidae	Sterna dougallii dougallii	b / n		1		1
Charadriiformes	Sternidae	Sterna hirundo hirundo	b / n	91	376	275	742
Charadriiformes	Sternidae	Thalasseu sandvicensis			2		2
Ciconiiformes	Ardeidae	Ardea cinerea		713	8	35	756
Ciconiiformes	Ardeidae	Ardeola ralloides		3			3
Ciconiiformes	Ardeidae	Bubulcus ibis		2	3		5
Ciconiiformes	Ardeidae	Egretta garzetta		67	19	25	111
Ciconiiformes	Threskiornithidae	Platalea leucorodia				5	5
Ciconiiformes	Threskiornithidae	Plegadis falcinellus		9			9
Columbiformes	Columbidae	Columba livia	b / i	25	185	272	482
Columbiformes	Columbidae	Columba palumbus azorica	b / END	76	43	5	124
Columbiformes	Columbidae	Streptopelia decaocto decaocto	b / n	1	8	127	136
Coraciiformes	Alcedinidae	Megaceryle alcyon		5			5
Falconiformes	Accipitridae	Buteo buteo rothschildi	b / END	43	4	44	91
Falconiformes	Falconidae	Falco tinnunculus				2	2
Falconiformes	Pandiondidae	Pandion haliaetus		1			1
Galliformes	Phasianidae	Coturnix coturnix conturbans	b / n		10		10
Gaviiformes	Gaviidae	Gavia immer			5	1	6
Gruiformes	Rallidae	Fulica atra	b / n	5077			5077
Gruiformes	Rallidae	Gallinula chloropus	b / n	2930	2	5	2937
Passeriformes	Emberizidae	Plectrophenax nivalis				1	1
Passeriformes	Estrildidade	Estrilda astrild	b / i	367	18	147	532
Passeriformes	Fringillidae	Carduelis carduelis parva	b / i	196	13	19	228
Passeriformes	Fringillidae	Serinus canaria canaria	b /MAC	61	136	88	285
Passeriformes	Hirundinidae	Hirundo rustica				9	9
Passeriformes	Motacillidae	Motacilla cinerea patriciae	b / END	4	35	65	104
Passeriformes	Passaridae	Passer domesticus domesticus	b / i	164	61	347	572
Passeriformes	Sturnidae	Sturnus vulgaris granti	b / END	151	41	339	531
Passeriformes	Sylviidae	Sylvia atricapilla gularis	b / END	22		13	35
Passeriformes	Turdidae	Erithacus rubecula rubecula	b / n	1			1
Passeriformes	Turdidae	Turdus merula azorensis	b / END	1950	72	176	2198
Procellariiformes	Procellariidae	Calonectris borealis	b / n	1			1
		Abundance		16663	11793	54529
		Species Richness		55	40	85

Of all observed species, three are not referred to in Barcelos et al. (2015), which is the most recent update on the list of Azorean birds: Aythya americana (Eyton 1838), Chlidonias leucopterus (Temminck 1815) and Tringa brevipes (Vieillot 1816). One species is a new record for Terceira Island: Lophodytes cucullatus (Linnaeus 1758). Aythya americana is a Nearctic occasional migrant duck, Chlidonias leucopterus is a Palearctic tern and Tringa brevipes is a shorebird breeding in northeast Siberia. All other species have previously been recorded at several levels of relative abundance, both as breeding native (ten taxa), breeding Azorean endemic (seven taxa), breeding Macaronesian endemic (one taxon), breeding introduced (four taxa) and vagrant (87 additional taxa) (Table 1). About 15 out of the 21 breeding species are common with more than 100 individuals recorded in the three sites. Based on the Barcelos et al. (2015) classification of vagrant species, in the three sites we found: 45 occasional migrants, 21 regular migrants, 17 occasional wintering taxa and 26 regular wintering taxa. The Palearctic taxa dominate the community of birds (52 taxa), whereas Holarctic (28 taxa) and Nearctic (25 taxa) have similar but with half of the frequency.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary material 1

LIFE_CWR_Birds

Goulart S et al.

Data type: Occurrences and abundances

Brief description: In this contribution, we present detailed data on the distribution and abundance of species belonging to several groups of arthropods in three Terceira island (Azores) wetlands: Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP).

File: oo_268688.xlsx

Funding Statement

This research was supported by the project LIFE CWR – Ecological Restoration and Conservation of Praia da Vitória Coastal Wet Green Infrastructure (2013-2018). Open access was funded by FEDER in 85% and by Azorean Public funds by 15% through Operational Program Azores 2020, under the project AZORESBIOPORTAL – PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072).

Author contributions

EN conceived the original Project. JPB and PAVB conceived and drafted the manuscript. SG, MRB, SS and CP collected the data and identified the species. PAVB organised the final database. All the authors revised and contributed to the final text.