HABITAT PREFERENCES AND SPATIAL OVERLAP BETWEEN THREE SPECIES OF BUNTING (EMBERIZA HORTULANA, EMBERIZA CIRLUS, MILIARIA CALANDRA) IN FARMLANDS OF CENTRAL ITALY

Buntings species are mainly associated to agricultural landscapes and constitute a high conservation concern because farmlands are ecosystems subject to rapid changes and may cause the loss of animal species in just a few years. We studied the occurrence of Ortolan Bunting, Cirl Bunting and Corn Bunting (Emberiza hortulana, Emberiza cirlus, Miliaria calandra) on farmlands of Central Italy, considering the landuse composition, crop typologies and several structural parameters of environment occupied by these species, as presence of power lines, road type and Shannon biodiversity index of landscape. Furthermore the geographical overlap among the three bunting species was studied, in order to find witch species show an habitat overlap. The study was carried out in central-eastern Italy, between the end of April and mid-July 2010, through 159 sampled sites, uniformly distributed on in the study area. Cirl Bunting is the most widespread species of Bunting in the farmlands that were studied. Ortolan Bunting and Corn Bunting are the two species with greater spatial habitat overlap, even though land-use composition in their territories was different. However, Ortolan Bunting can be found at a lower altitude range than Corn Bunting (less 550 m a.s.l.) and it is associated to territories with minor landscape heterogeneity. Preferences by crop types seem to be a possible cause of the spatial habitat overlap between Ortolan and Corn Bunting (both species had selected sugar beet, and coriander, avoiding mainly vegetables, vineyards and orchards). On the other hand, Cirl Bunting was less related to crop types.