165
Little Owl Athene noctua survey 
in the area of Ulcinj  
(S Montenegro) in 2015
Popis čuka Athene noctua na območju 
Ulcinja ( J. Črna gora) leta 2015
Acrocephalus 39 (178/179): 165–170, 2018
10.1515/acro-2018-0011
(Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008). Perching spots 
for hunting and a spot for roosting during the day 
are also important. The availability of grassland and 
arable land is beneficial but not obligatory for its 
occurrence (Żmihorski et al. 2009). 
Generally, the population of Little Owl is non-
threatened (BirdLife International 2017), 
but some local European populations suffered 
great declines in the last 60 years (Cramp 1985; 
Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008) and in some 
areas populations decreased substantially, with 
populations in Denmark, for example, on the brink 
of disappearance (Sunde et al. 2009). The species 
is a resident in Europe (BirdLife International 
2017) and considered a regular breeder in 
Montenegro (Stumberger et al. 2008, Saveljić & 
Jovićević 2015). While ample data are at hand on 
the breeding, migrating and wintering waterbirds 
and raptors in the wider Bojana River delta area, 
including salt pans at Ulcinj Solana (Stumberger 
et al. 2008, Sackl et al. 2016), several other species 
of birds have not been included in systematic surveys 
of the area. There are 1-2 breeding pairs of Little 
Owls nesting in buildings at Solana (Stumberger 
et al. 2008), while the estimate for the wider Bojana 
delta is >18 breeding pairs (Schneider-Jacoby et al. 
2006). The data leading to this first estimate was 
collected in the Bojana delta during systematic 
surveys of other species and area surveys of rare 
species, especially during the surveys within the 
Rapid Assessment of Birds in the Bojana-Buna 
Area in 2004 (Schneider-Jacoby et al. 2006). The 
majority of data were collected during daytime 
surveys of different species and sites within the 
Bojana delta, but some were also collected during 
night surveys of other species, specifically Scops 
Owl Otus scops, European Nightjar Caprimulgus 
europaeus and Baillon’s Crake Zapornia pussila. 
No systematic survey of Little Owls was carried out 
in this area. Our aim was to survey the population 
of Little Owl between the town of Ulcinj and the 
mouth of the Bojana River (S Montenegro).
2. Study area and methods
2.1. Study area
The study was conducted in the southern part of 
Montenegro, between the town of Ulcinj and the 
Ivan Kljun1, Dejan Bordjan2
1 DOPPS  – Društvo za opazovanje in proučevanje 
ptic Slovenije, Tržaška cesta 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, 
Slovenija, e-mail: ivan.kljun@dopps.si
2 Oddelek za gozdarstvo in obnovljive gozdne vire, 
Biotehniška fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani, Večna 
pot 83, SI-1000 Ljubljana, e-mail: dejan.bordjan@
gmail.com 
Abstract
Between 29 Mar and 10 Apr, 2015, a Little 
Owl Athene noctua survey was carried out using 
the playback method in the southern part of 
Montenegro. The study area was situated between 
the town of Ulcinj and the Bojana River delta. 
A  total of 55 calling males were registered at 26 
survey points with a maximum of 4 calling males per 
survey point. Considering the low response rate of 
the Little Owl, its local population was estimated at 
be 55–110 calling males. This study presents the first 
systematic survey of the Little Owl in Montenegro.
1. Introduction
Little Owl Athene noctua is a transpalearctic species 
covering Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the 
Middle East and through Central Asia reaching 
China. A part of the species’ range is located in 
Ethiopia and in the southern part of the Arabian 
Peninsula (BirdLife International 2017). 
In Central Europe, the species mainly occurs at 
low altitudes (up to 600 m a.s.l.). It is a species of 
open-country and avoids dense forests and other 
types of dense vegetation (Cramp 1985). It nests 
in tree cavities, rock crevices and buildings. One 
of the limiting factors for the expansion of Little 
Owls is the limited number of suitable nesting sites 
166
Bojana River delta (UTM CM53, CM54, CM63 
and CM64; 41°54.5'N 19°17'E). The survey points 
were located in the area of Štoj and suburbs of 
Ulcinj. Štoj is approximately 10-km long stretch 
of hinterland beyond the Velika plaža (Long 
Beach), a 12 km long stretch of sandy beach. It also 
includes a 7 km long tourist village Donji Štoj and 
a smaller Gornji Štoj. The beach of Velika plaža is 
heavily visited in the summer months. The size of 
the surveyed area was 15.4  km2 and calculated as 
the surface covered by the 500 m detection radius 
around the survey points (Johnson et al. 2007). 
The surveyed area is a mosaic of settlements, wet 
and moist meadows, salina, swamps, small-scale 
agriculture, scattered orchard and vineyard 
plantations and mostly fragmented stands of 
Willow Salix sp., Poplar Populus sp. and Alder 
Alnus sp. forests (Schwartz 2010). 
2.2. Methods
We used the playback method as described by 
Johnson et al. (2007). Initially, we determined 
26 survey points which were more than 500  m 
apart, with two exceptions that were 400 and 
491 m apart. The Little Owl in the Mediterranean 
region has its peak in vocal activity at the end of 
March and the beginning of April (Johnson et 
al. 2007). Therefore, we decided to conduct the 
fieldwork in the nights of 29th March, 2nd and 
10th April 2015. We chose calm and clear nights 
with no or little wind, as weather conditions 
could affect the vocal activity of the owls 
(Zubergoitia & Campos 1998). The surveys 
started at sunset and finished around 23:00. For 
every Little Owl we recorded the approximate 
direction in order to minimize count replications. 
Figure 1: Map of the study area between Ulcinj and the Bojana River delta. The survey points are presented as black 
spots, while the surveyed area is marked as a hatched polygon.
Slika 1: Karta raziskovanega območja med Ulcinjem in delto reke Bojane. Popisne točke so označene s črnimi 
pikami, popisano območje je označeno kot šrafiran poligon.
I. Kljun, D. Bordjan: Little Owl Athene noctua survey in the area of Ulcinj (S Montenegro) in 2015
167
The method by Johnson et al. (2007) suggests 
at least 3 visits to every survey point to be made 
to determine non-occupancy owing to the low 
response rate of the species. Nonetheless, due to 
time limitations and high response by the owls 
we visited every survey point only once. In the 
areas of high density, however, the owls responded 
more readily (Zubergoitia & Campos 1998), 
so we concluded that repeating surveys would 
not increase our results substantially. Maps were 
created using ArcGIS software by Esri.
3. Results and discussion 
We recorded 55 calling males at the 26 survey 
points. The density of calling males in the surveyed 
area was 3.57 per km2. Only one survey point was 
without a response. On average, we registered 2 
calling males per survey point, with the highest 
number of 4, which occurred three times. 
Centini (2001) concluded that the response 
rate by the Little Owl to playback was 49.6  %. 
Considering this and the fact that the response rate 
is higher in the areas more densely populated by 
Little Owls (Zubergoitia & Campos 1998), we 
assume that we registered considerably more than 
half of the local population. We estimate the local 
population to be 55-110 calling males.
A comparison of breeding densities from 
around Europe shows that the Ulcinj area has high 
local density of breeding Little Owls. Furthermore, 
it is mostly higher than those in Central and 
Western Europe (Exo 1992, Vogrin 1997, Ille et 
al. 2001, Berce & Kmecl 2008) and comparable to 
other studies from the Mediterranean (Hof 2007, 
Tomé et al. 2008).
Figure 2: Map of the study area with symbols indicating the number of calling males of Little Owl Athene 
noctua per survey point
Slika 2: Karta raziskanega območja z označenim številom pojočih samcev čuka Athene noctua na popisnih 
točkah
Acrocephalus 39 (178/179): 165–170, 2018
168
Little Owls prefer habitats with more build-
up areas and less forested areas (Żmihorski et 
al. 2009). The high density of Little Owls in the 
surveyed area seems supportive of this finding. 
Also, many buildings at Donji Štoj are empty 
during most of the year, since they are occupied 
only during the summer holidays, meaning lower 
human disturbance. Additionally, the abundance 
of meadows and pastures with very low vegetation 
height in the survey area offer suitable feeding 
Country Area
Singing males/
km2 Pairs/ km2 Reference
Italy Tolfa Mountains, Lazio 0.55 Centili 1995
1Italy Pavi 1.1 Cesaris 1988
2Slovak republic Michalovce district 1 Danko et al. 1994
1,2Poland Mazowsze lowland 1.4 Dobrowski et al. 1991
2Austria Burgenland 1.5 Dvorak et al. 1993
1Italy Po plain 9,3–11 Estoppey 1992
1Germany 1,2–1,7 Exo 1983
2Poland South Podlasie 0.4 Fronczak et al. 1991
1The Netherlands Betuwe 2.1 Fuchs 1986
3France 10 areas 0.21 Génot 1996
3Austria 5 areas 0.08 Ille et al. 2001
1Germany Up to 5,6 Illner et al. 1989
1,2Poland Kampinos National Park 0.6 Kowalski et al. 1991
Italy Plain of Bergamo, Lombardia 0.69 Mastrorilli 1997
Italy Plain of Pavia, Lombardia 0.4 Pirovano & Galeotti 1999
Czech Republic Southern Bohemia 0.024 Pykal et al. 1994
1Germany East-Germany 0.1 Schönn 1986
3Czech Republic 27 areas 0.12 Schröpfer 2000
Denmark Jutland 0,04–0,06 Sunde et al. 2009
Hungary Hortobagy 0.501 Šalek et al. 2013
Italy Castel Porziano, Lazio 3.14–4.62 Tomassi et al. 1999
Portugal Cabeça da Serra 7 Tomé et al. 2008
Portugal S. Marcos da Atabueir 2.5 Tomé et al. 2008
Portugal Quinta da Rocha 6.44 Hof 2007
Slovenia Dravsko polje Up to 0,48 Vogrin 1997
Montenegro Ulcinj 3.57 This research
Table 1: Published average Little Owl densities with data on the country, area, unit and reference for the research 
Tabela 1: Objavljene povprečne gostote čuka s podatki o državi, območju, enoti in referencah za raziskovanje vrste
1 summary and references by Génot (1996)
2 summary and references by Vogrin (1997)
3 summary and references by Hof (2007)
I. Kljun, D. Bordjan: Little Owl Athene noctua survey in the area of Ulcinj (S Montenegro) in 2015
169
places for Little Owls which require areas of low 
vegetation height or bare ground to spot the prey 
(Grzywaczewski 2009, Framis 2011). Surveys in 
the floodplain of the Bojana River delta (250 km2), 
which includes the towns of Ulcinj and Štoj, revealed 
high numbers of other conservationally important 
insectivorous species such as Scops Owl (Otus scops) 
>89 bp (breeding pairs), Nightjar (Caprimulgus 
europaeus) 111-500 bp, Roller (Coracias garrulus) 
9-15 bp, Hoopoe (Upupa epops) >51 bp and Bee-
eater (Merops apiaster) >261 bp (Schneider-
Jacoby et al. 2006). The relatively high density of 
Little Owls in the study area corroborates the high 
biodiversity and conservation value of the Bojana 
River delta.
Povzetek
Med 29. 3. in 10. 4. 2015 smo opravili popis čuka 
Athene noctua z metodo predvajanja posnetka 
v južni Črni gori. Preučevano območje je bilo 
med mestom Ulcinj in delto reke Bojane. Skupno 
smo zabeležili 55 kličočih samcev na 26 točkah, 
maksimum za eno točko so bili štirje samci. 
Upoštevajoč slabo odzivnost vrste na posnetek 
lokalno populacijo ocenjujemo na 55–110 kličočih 
samcev. Raziskava je prvi sistematični popis čuka v 
Črni gori.
Key words: Little Owl, Athene noctua, playback 
survey method, S Montenegro
Ključne besede: čuk, Athene noctua, metoda 
predvajanja posnetka, J Črna gora
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Prispelo / Arrived: 22. 1. 2018
Sprejeto / Accepted: 4. 1. 2019
I. Kljun, D. Bordjan: Little Owl Athene noctua survey in the area of Ulcinj (S Montenegro) in 2015