Playback survey of owls in Warsaw in 2024

https://ipt.gbif.pl/resource?r=sowy_warszawa Playback survey of owls in Warsaw in 2024 Karolina Kuczkowska University of Warsaw Data Manager

kkuczkowska@os-conservation.org https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8277-7258 Dawid Sadkowski University of Warsaw PhD Candidate

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2503-1944 Weronika Baranowska University of Warsaw PhD Candidate

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9089-2016 Jan Rapczyński Warsaw University of Life Sciences Student

Kajetan Chalecki University of Warsaw Student

Karolina Kuczkowska University of Warsaw Data Manager

kkuczkowska@os-conservation.org https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8277-7258 2026-03-23 eng This data was collected during a playback survey of owls in Warsaw in February, March and April of 2024. The project was organised by the Ornithology Science Club "Jajo" at the University of Warsaw, supported by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, The Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (OTOP) and Owl Conservation Association (SOS). Over a hundred volunteers took part in the field surveys. In each of the 431 survey points covering most of the city's surface, 3 surveys were conducted. Researchers were listening for spontaneous vocal activity of selected owl species as well as using playback and recording all found owls. The occurrences in this dataset represent both absence and presence data. For each species surveyed at each point, there is either an absence record or one or more presence records in the occurrence table. To protect the precise locations of owls' nests, the coordinates attached to records represent survey points. Some birds were recorded outside of survey points – those observations are provided in this dataset with coordinates of the closest survey point and coordinateUncertaintyInMeters=500. Samplingevent GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml Observation GBIF Dataset Subtype Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_subtype.xml This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License. All survey points were located within city limits of Warsaw, Poland, in a grid of about 1 km x 1 km. Densely built-up areas without suitable trees, especially in the city center, were excluded from the grid. Additional points were added in suitable areas (parks, cemeteries) if they were too far from the existing grid points. Total of 431 point were surveyed. 20.857 21.261 52.362 52.105 2024-02-20 2024-05-01 Strix aluco, Asio otus, Athene noctua, Glaucidium passerinum, Aegolius funereus, Tyto alba phylum Chordata class Aves order Strigiformes kingdom Animalia unkown Karolina Kuczkowska University of Warsaw Data Manager

kkuczkowska@os-conservation.org https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8277-7258 At each point, for each species surveyed: >120 s listening, 10 s playback, 60 s listening, 30 s playback, 120 s listening, 60 s playback, >120 s listening. The goal of this study was to assess the number of owls of 6 species of interest nesting in Warsaw in 2024. The species of interest were: Strix aluco, Asio otus, Athene noctua, Glaucidium passerinum, Aegolius funereus and Tyto alba. 431 sampling points were selected in the city, following a grid of 1 km x 1 km, and 3 bioacoustic surveys with playback were condicted in each point. In each sampling point, the list of possible species was compiled based on habitat characteristics. Species were surveyed from the smallest one to the biggest at each point. For each surveyed species, the researchers were first passively listening for at least two minutes, then used playback and listened for response, marking all observed target species. The playback protocol is described in detail below and takes about 10 minutes per species. Playback was not used if species were already vocally active. Playback was stopped after the first vocal response of the species of interest. For the safety of the smaller species, the playback for them was not used in points where there were spontaneous vocal activity of Strix Aluco. Each survey was run by two researchers. All study participants were first instructed and given materials on proper fieldwork methods and recognising species of interest. In every researcher pair, there was at least one person with previous experience in bird or owl monitoring. In case of doubtful identifications, sound recordings were analysed by experts to confirm the species identification. 2026-03-20T15:48:27.987+00:00 dataset Kuczkowska K, Sadkowski D, Baranowska W, Rapczyński J, Chalecki K (2026). Playback survey of owls in Warsaw in 2024. Version 1.1. University of Warsaw. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.gbif.pl/resource?r=sowy_warszawa&v=1.1 https://ipt.gbif.pl/resource?id=sowy_warszawa/v1.1.xml