Variable Wheatear (Oenanthe picata Blyth, 1847) in Southern Kazakhstan (Biology, Ecology, Behaviour, Parasites, Epidemiological Importance) (a History of One Population) [Russian]

About this book

Language: Russian with English summary

For their study of a marked population of Variable Wheatears Oenanthe picata (130-150 pairs, colour morphs capistrata, opistholeuca and, rather scarce, evreinowi), Alexander Matyukhin and colleagues worked in the southern Chimkent Region of Kazakhstan. The Darbaza study site contained two dry river beds, slopes, steppe and scrub vegetation. Matyukhin’s team comprised three to five members for the 1985-1988 field seasons, Matyukhin and the late S.Yu. Lyubushchenko, working independently of each other, in 1989-1992, while Matyukhin made a final visit in May 2005.

Aspects studied included breeding biology (arrival times, nest-building, laying, eggs/oology, first and second clutch- and brood-size, breeding success), parental behaviour (feeding rates, etc.), behaviour when disturbed, polygyny, moult of young birds, measurements, philopatry (selection of territory by birds born in the study area, etc.), pair- and site-fidelity, genealogy and heritability of plumage colour, ectoparasites and invertebrates sharing habitat with O. picata.

Both Matyukhin and V.I. Grabovskiy present their memories of Lyubushchenko and there is a list of Lyubushchenko’s publications, including his 1995 dissertation on the Variable Wheatear.

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