Abstract:

Biodiversity conservation is one of the most important problems in our days. The agricultural intensification has been increased in last decades. This led to the decline of farmland bird populations across Western-Europe. Grasslands are characteristic habitats in Hungary, one-third of the protected animal- and plant species occur in these grasslands. The most important agricultural activity is grazing. However, grazing might affect the reproduction of birds via the modification of landscape and vegetation structure. I examined the effects of vegetation cover and grass height on the nest predation of Skylark (Alauda arvensis). The study showed that nest predation caused the failure of 50% of nests. I found that the vegetation tended to be higher around successful than predated nests.