Breeding biology of the chaffinch Fringilla coelebs africana in the El Kala National Park (North East Algeria)

Abstract

This work focused on monitoring the reproductive phenology of the Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs africana for two successive seasons (2016 and 2017) in the mountains of the El Kala National Park (North East Algeria). We searched for nests in the tree stratum or by direct observation of breeding pairs carrying building materials from mid–March to the end of June and found a total of 34 nests that were measured without affecting the breeding process. The results show that nests were built at an average height of 6.3 m from the ground. The laying period was 46 days (Early April to mid–May) and the average laying date was May 2. The mean of clutch size is 3.2 eggs per brood. All the previous traits are similar to those recorded in Europe. The mean hatching success rate was 43.1% and the average breeding success rate was 36.3%. These two values are relatively low compared to those found in European populations.