A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1965 (Debrecen, 1966)

Tanulmányok - Kovács Béla: Data on the avifauna of county Hajdú-Bihar

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) Tiszadob (1963) and Bödönhát (1961) 1 pair. Spoonbill (Platalea laucordia) 40-80 pairs nesting at Hortobágy Fish-Pond every year since 1948. 2. Birds nesting on the ground of large, widespreading, continuous pastures are decreasing extinct and call for the help of a Bird Sanctuary by the Hortobágy Comittee. The rapid disparition of species living on the steppe comes from the fact that by the spreading of intensive animal husbandry the large, far-reaching, continuous pastures have lost their importance. Part of them has been turbed into ploughland, fish-ponds or rice cultures, a great part is irrigated and broken up by canals and roads. Sporadically occuring steppe mosaics are not suitable to preserve the bird settlement in themselves, they need effective nature preservation. That is why the Little Bustard (Otis tetrax) has become fully extinct, the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) in 97%. The Kentish Plower (Cacardius alexandrianus) also calls for protection as only four nesting places of it are known in the Hortobágy: Újváros flat, Bekefenék, Cserepes, and Kunkápolnáspuszta. The Pratincole (Glareola pratincola) has decreased by 90% since the beginning of this century on the territory considered as puszta in the wider sense. The Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) seems to accomodate itself to present conditions. In 1933 the Rose-coloured Starling (Pastor roseus) used to brood in about a thousand nests at Karcag puszta making part of the Hortobágy. The last data of its nesting in this county in very small numbers (10—15 couples) dates back to 1954. Other species of the puszta, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix), the Partridge (Perdix perdix), the Tawny Pipit (Anthus campestris) have also considerably decreased in number. 3. The reason why the number of migrating geese, ducks, cranes, etc. has been getting ever smaller, is still to be fully stated. Interest shall be paid to the first authentic nesting of the Levant sparrow Hawk (Accipiter brevipes) in Hungary. It was in the years 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962 in Denrecen Nagyerdő. The Stone Curlew (Burchinus oedicnemus) nested for the first time at Hortobágy in 1964, the first occurence of the Golden Plower (Charadrius apricarius albifrons Brehm) in Hungary was in 1963, near Hajdúbagos. 381