RICE FIELDS SUPPORT A LARGE PORTION OF HERONS BREEDING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

The importance of rice fields for breeding herons was assessed during comparative studies of their foraging ecology (densities of foraging a dults, prey abundance, feeding success, chick diets) in the five major regions of rice cultivation in Europe: northwest Italy, the Po Delta in northwest Italy, the Rhone Delta in France, the Axios Delta in Gree ce, and the Ebro Delta in Spain. Rice fields offered better conditions to foraging herons than natural habitats in northwestern and northeas tern Italy where the number of feeding herons, food intake rates, and prey abundance in rice fields were higher. The proportion of the food resources obtained by herons from the agricultural habitats, rice fiel ds and small irrigation canals was estimated using two independent met hods. Six heron species acquired more than half of their food from ric e fields in all the regions except the Rhone Delta where agricultural habitats offered less prey. The conclude that rice fields are the main foraging habitat for herons breeding in Mediterranean Europe, and we urge authorities to consider the special importance of rice field mana gement to the conservation of Mediterranean herons.