Project on the March

Researchers build raft as a “landing site” for migratory birds

Common terns need gravel banks to breed. As these have become rare, humans must now use their ingenuity to help out.(Bild: J. Bohdal/Naturfoto)

Common terns have lost their traditional nesting sites due to river regulation. WWF scientists now want to return them to the March in Lower Austria.

They were once thought to be extinct in Lower Austria. This fate now threatens them again. There is currently only one breeding colony of common terns left near the WWF floodplain reserve on the River March. "It's probably the last one in eastern Austria," explains expert Michael Stelzhammer.

Floating nesting site
The WWF project manager now wants to create a new habitat for the rare migratory birds near Sandparz near Weiden an der March in the district of Gänserndorf. With a so-called breeding raft. This artificial landing site is already floating on a dredging pond and is intended to offer common terns the opportunity to build a protected nest and raise their young. "In this way, we want to restore this species as a regular breeding bird in the March-Thaya floodplains," says Stelzhammer.

Common terns are supposed to build their nests on such rafts.(Bild: Walther Gastinger/WWF)

Too few gravel banks
The birds with the white-grey plumage, the typical forked tail tips and a wingspan of up to 80 centimetres live not only near the coast, but also inland along rivers such as the Danube and March. However, power plants, riverbank engineering and river regulation have increasingly pushed the common terns back - after all, they need gravel banks to breed. In future, breeding rafts such as the one in Sandparz should be a suitable substitute.

Spectacular wedding flight
And perhaps the ravishing courtship behavior of these migratory birds can soon be observed more often on the March - when a pair of common terns soar vertically into the sky in a fluttering flight and then glide to their nesting site, whistling.