Branta Issues > Issue №5 (2002)

Black-headed Bunting in the Crimea: current area, number and biology

Kinda V.V., Grinchenko A.B.

From the end of the first half of the 19th century till the end of the first third of the 20th century, according to the literary data, Black-headed Bunting was known as a migratory bird in the Crimea. It had flown there from Northern Caucasia. Its breeding was for the first time registered in 1943 in the south-eastern part of the Kerchensky peninsula (near Mount Opuk). In the beginning of the 70s there formed a small breeding area. Investigations (1984-2002) showed that Black-headed Bunting gradually occupied almost all the Kerchensky peninsula. By the beginning of the 19th century a border of this species breeding area shifted to the west till the bottom of Arabatskaya spit and Feodosia region. For the rest Crimean territory single records are known which should be considered as migratory phenomena. Basing on quantitative counts the total number of the bird population on the Kerchensky peninsula is estimated as 150-200 pairs. Main types of breeding habitats, characteristics of the species spatial distribution and phenology are showed. It is also given a brief description of two nests found in the Crimea for the first time.