Testing a remote monitoring system for census and tracking of a lesser kestrel colony through its calls
Researcher Javier Bustamante, from the Doñana Biological Station, installs a digital recorder at the Baena grain silo. Photo: José María Ayala
The scientific team of the SIMMRE Project (Intelligent Multi-Sensor Systems for Remote Species Monitoring) has launched a study in various locations across Spain with lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) colonies. The goal is to assess the effectiveness of ecoacoustics in estimating the number of breeding pairs in a colony and enabling remote monitoring. The project is conducted by the Doñana Biological Station and the Institute of Microelectronics of Seville, both part of CSIC, as well as the University of Seville.
One of the selected sites is the Baena grain silo, home to a lesser kestrel colony established in 2012 by the conservation organizations GREFA and Groden-Ecologistas en Acción. These organizations also conduct censuses, periodic monitoring, and banding of newly hatched chicks each year. In addition to Baena, the study will cover other colonies in Andalusia, Extremadura, and Aragón, including the La Palma del Condado grain silo (Huelva), the Huerta Tejada nucleus (Doñana), and the Church of Ribera del Fresno (Badajoz), among others.
To carry out the research, the team has installed digital recorders at each site. These devices capture sound for one minute every ten minutes during the two hours after sunrise and the two hours before sunset, the peak activity periods for lesser kestrels in their roosting areas. The collected data will later be compared with census records and banding data to assess the accuracy of this method.
The SIMMRE Project is funded by the Complementary Biodiversity Plan of the Regional Government of Andalusia, with resources from the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, NextGenerationEU.
Female lesser kestrel at the Baena grain silo (Córdoba). Photo: José María Ayala.
