Habitrack visit in Italy – successful collaboration on duck tracking
The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) was involved in the Habitrack project early on by sharing data, exchanging expertise, and deploying GPS tags on Eurasian wigeons and Northern pintails in Italy. This collaboration has intensified during a 3-month stay of Devon Cevenini (PhD student at Padua University, supervised by Andrea Pilastro and Lorenzo Serra) with Andrea Kölzsch at Radboud University in the Netherlands, May – July 2025, leading to a manuscript about sex differences of wigeon and pintail movement.
In February 2026, a small group of Dutch researchers (Andrea Kölzsch, Gerard Müskens, Fred Cottaar and Youri van der Horst) was visiting the duck catching field sites in the Veneto area.
“Being hosted in Valle Cavallino (near Jesolo, Venezia), we were able to experience the changing landscape and habitats that the multitude of waterbirds in the area use. Excitingly, a number of permanently installed, swimming traps of ISPRA could be used for trapping many different species of waterbirds in the area. In addition, a cannon net was put at a regular waterbird feeding site. During and after many successful catching attempts, we visitors could closely exchange techniques and experiences of catching, ringing and sampling birds with the local field team, headed by Marco Basso and Lucio Panzarin.
In addition to the 11 wigeons that the Italian team had tagged for Habitrack before, we were able to equip three more male wigeons with a GPS transmitter. A true highlight of the short visit.
The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) was involved in the Habitrack project early on by sharing data, exchanging expertise, and deploying GPS tags on Eurasian wigeons and Northern pintails in Italy. This collaboration has intensified during a 3-month stay of Devon Cevenini (PhD student at Padua University, supervised by Andrea Pilastro and Lorenzo Serra) with Andrea Kölzsch at Radboud University in the Netherlands, May – July 2025, leading to a manuscript about sex differences of wigeon and pintail movement.
In February 2026, a small group of Dutch researchers (Andrea Kölzsch, Gerard Müskens, Fred Cottaar and Youri van der Horst) was visiting the duck catching field sites in the Veneto area.
“Being hosted in Valle Cavallino (near Jesolo, Venezia), we were able to experience the changing landscape and habitats that the multitude of waterbirds in the area use. Excitingly, a number of permanently installed, swimming traps of ISPRA could be used for trapping many different species of waterbirds in the area. In addition, a cannon net was put at a regular waterbird feeding site. During and after many successful catching attempts, we visitors could closely exchange techniques and experiences of catching, ringing and sampling birds with the local field team, headed by Marco Basso and Lucio Panzarin.
In addition to the 11 wigeons that the Italian team had tagged for Habitrack before, we were able to equip three more male wigeons with a GPS transmitter. A true highlight of the short visit.
During one ringing and tagging session, rangers from the regional Forestry Corps visited us, returning a transmitter that had been found on a wigeon recently shot in the area. Interestingly, this bird had been tagged for Habitrack in Hungary in February 2023. The worn harness tells us about durability and potential effects on the birds; the transmitter can be reused.
Overall, the visit has been a successful intensification of the collaboration, adding to the Habitrack database and family. We felt extremely welcome, learned a lot and had a wonderful time, thanks so much!”
Andrea Kölzsch, Radboud University
