Habitat use by Moltoni’s Warbler Sylvia cantillans moltonii in Italy

Moltoni's Warbler Sylvia cantillans moltonii is a poorly studied bird endemic to a restricted area in the central-western Mediterranean. We analysed selection of different vegetation structural types by Moltoni's Warblers for singing and foraging in two hilly areas in the northern Apennines (Italy) with low-intensity farming. We related habitat use by the species to 13 habitat categories, defined mainly on the basis of vegetation structure, accounting for vegetation height and presence of broadleaved and/or coniferous plants. We assessed significant differences in the use of habitat categories with respect to their availability, analysing singing and foraging data separately. The most selected categories included medium (1.5-3 m) and/or low (< 1.5 m) shrubs. A shift in habitat use according to the different behaviours was quite evident: singing males showed a tendency toward using higher vegetation, while foraging birds relied mainly on lower layers. Additionally, our study highlights the importance of marginal features such as shrub patches in agricultural systems to allow the presence of non-grassland birds in farmland landscapes.