Description
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.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,724 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
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
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is University of Warsaw. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: b004c221-4e29-4148-88b6-04e9ea2e3e5e. University of Warsaw publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Polish Biodiversity Information Network.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Observation
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8277-7258
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
Geographic Coverage
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.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [52.105, 20.857], North East [52.362, 21.261] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
Strix aluco, Asio otus, Athene noctua, Glaucidium passerinum, Aegolius funereus, Tyto alba
| Kingdom | Animalia |
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| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Strigiformes |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2024-02-20 / 2024-05-01 |
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Sampling Methods
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.
| Study Extent | 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. |
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| Quality Control | 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. |
Method step description:
- 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.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | https://ipt.gbif.pl/resource?r=sowy_warszawa |
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