Multiscale and multiphase conservation strategies for an iconic bird species: The white stork Ciconia ciconia in Italy

During the past century, the white stork Ciconia ciconia experienced local population extinctions. However, in recent decades the species has shown a rapid rebound in many parts of its range, including Italy. We monitored almost all breeding pairs in Italy during the 2024 season and explained breeding success through a Bayesian model. We then used the model to predict the effects of different conservation strategies on future breeding performance. Our model achieved 93.62%, 89.54% and 90.56% accuracies for nest abandonment, hatching and fledging success, respectively. We found that: (a) 11.0% of nests were abandoned; (b) the most common breeding values were equal to two for both hatching and fledging; (c) the fledging success is almost exclusively determined by hatching success; (d) the ideal conditions for breeding success entail low latitude (37°–43° North) and altitude (<200 m a.s.l.), unbuilt nesting area, absence of extreme weather events, nest placement on buildings, distance of the nest from roads >100 m, nest height > 20 m a.g.l., distance from the nearest white stork nest >1 km. We conclude that it is possible to significantly increase the white stork breeding success in Italy by acting selectively upon specific factors at different spatial scales for each breeding phase. Proper conservation strategies should limit nest abandonment through local and meso-scale actions, and increase the hatching success by means of local-, meso- and coarse-scale interventions. Our methodological approach may facilitate the identification of analogous conservation strategies for other avian species.