Hole-breeding passerines monitoring: Hoge Veluwe

Study site

Hoge Veluwe is one of four areas in NIOO-AnE's long-term monitoring research on great tits and other bird species that started in 1955. It consists of a large forest area of more than 350 ha of mainly conifers and oak on poor sandy soil. This area is part of the largest forest complex in the Netherlands, De Veluwe. Every breeding season, many students and researchers are involved in doing field work at Hoge Veluwe. 

Species groups studied

Bird species studied since 1955 are hole-breeders: mainly great tit, blue tit, pied flycatcher and nuthatch. Also, the budburst of oak trees has been recorded and studied each year for the past three decades. In recent decades, frass of winter moths has also been collected each spring period, to determine the biomass peak of winter moth caterpillars. In late autumn, winter moths are collected in traps on specific oak trees, and brought to the research lab facilities at NIOO for further genetic research under a range of climatic conditions. Finally, the size of the beech crop is recorded each year by sampling square meters under beech trees, which helps to identify mast years.

Running period (guaranteed funding)

1955 - undetermined

Equipment / facilities

Nestboxes (+/-400)

Data management 

All detailed data from breeding season and winter period roost checks is entered in the ‘Avian database' (BAS) at NIOO-AnE. It consists of broods, individuals, captures, all kinds of biometry data, blood and other samples, bill size photographs, etc. It also contains data on other species, including pied flycatchers and blue tits.

Budburst data is entered in a separate database, as is the case with winter moth data and beech crop data.

Available datasets

• Hole-breeders (1955 – undetermined)
• Budburst (1993 – undetermined)
• Winter moth (1993 – undetermined)
• Beech crop (1973 – undetermined)

Conditions for access

The area is private property, and is part of De Hoge Veluwe National Park. For more details, please contact Judith Risse.