L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 10. 1995 (Budapest, 1995)

Báldi, A., Zágon, A.; Bankovics, A.: Status of the avifauna in the Szigetköz riparian area: an ornithological evaluation for nature conservation

avifauna of the Szigetköz will review the status of all bird species, the estimated population size of rare species, and the densities of passerine species. Study area and methods The Szigetköz is located in Western Hungary (48°00'-47°40'N, 1715'-17°45'E) along the River Danube. It is composed of hundreds of small islands, surrounded with side-branches and dead arms. The Szigetköz is heavily managed by the forestry, at least 70% of the original forests were replaced with poplar (Populus sp.) plantation. See Simon (1992) for a botanical review and the evaluation of the naturalness of the area. The sources for the present evaluation were the published papers (Báldi & Kisbenedek 1994, Báldi & Moskát 1994, Waliczky 1992), unpublished reports (Mészáros & Báldi 1992), few records on rare species from our non-published observations, and mainly the extensive inventory conducted by one of us (A. Z.) in the breeding season of 1994. During this inventory the presence/absence of all bird species in 62 quadrats of 1km per 1km were mapped both in April and May in the flood area of the Danube in order to detect both early and late arrivals. The status of the avifauna from a conservation biological point of view was analysed according to their representation on national (Hungarian Red Data Book, Rakonczay 1990) and iiueiiiatiunal red lists (Appendices of the Bern Convention, list of the PHARE CORINE Biotopes Project and the IUCN Red list, Groombridge 1993). To bring together the ecological and economical reality, we made a rough estimation of the monetary value of the area, based on the estimation of occurring individuals and their monetary value given in the 12/1993 (31st of March) departmental order by the head of the Ministry of Environmental and Regional Policy. Results Altogether 208 bird species were observed in the Szigetköz area based on various sources from the last few years (see Appendix). This represents 58% of the total Hungarian avifauna. We evaluated the status of the observed bird species using several nature conservation lists. Thirty-eight of the observed species are listed in the Hungarian Red Data Book, which is 46% of the list. Fifty-seven percent of the protected, and 46% of the strictly protected species of Hungary occurred in the area. Twenty-two non protected species were also present in the Szigetköz, both the very abundant species e.g. the Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) and Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix), and several game birds like the Bean Goose (Anser fabalis), Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix), although these latter species are not common. The Appendix II. of the Bern Convention contained 139, the Appendix HI. contained 57 species, and 12 species were not included in the Bern Appendices from the observed species. The Species List of the CORINE Biotop Project listed 58 species, while 150 were missing from the list. Nine bird species occurre in Hungary from the IUCN Red List, from which 5 species were observed in the Szigetköz area. It is possible to rank the species based on the number of red lists they are present. The 32 most valuable species (bold in the Appendix) represent different status: there are 10 breeding, 5 possible breeding, 1 wintering, 16 migrating and 6 vagrant species. Báldi et al. (1995) recently ranked the Hungarian Amphibian, Reptile, Bird and Mammalian taxa according to their nature conservation priorities. They listed 269 bird species, which