Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2001, Page 127

ÚTBREIÐSLA OG TAL AV MÚSABRÓÐUR (TROGLODYTES) í FØROYUM
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had to be dealt with when singing males
were seen moving in and out of settlements,
across the fences delimiting the infield or
between coastal and inland cliffs. In such
cases I usually spent some extra time
watching the bird before making a subjec-
tive decision. Among the shortcomings of
the classification, the position-based plot-
ting and assignment of pairs to different
habitats, with an overlap in features consid-
ered essential to requirements of the wren,
considerably limits its usefulness for, for
instance, analyses of habitat preferences. In
fact, the adopted description of habitat-use
is more of a supplement to the geographic
distribution patterns. Another drawback,
that follows from the topography of the is-
lands with many wrens having ’Vertical ter-
ritories”, is that meaningful inter-habitat
comparisons of breeding densities are seri-
ously hampered.
Results
The wren occurs in all the major islands
(Fig. 2) and also on the small Trøllhøvdi
(0.20 km2) but it has not yet been recorded
on Tindhólmur (0.66), Gáshólmur (0.07),
and Sumbiarhólmur (0. ll).Wrens are
spread all over the islands but the majority
of breeding pairs are found along the coasts
and also many of the inland pairs breed
within <1-2 km of the nearest shoreline.
Wrens also breed at some altitude, though
they are less numerous on the higher
plateaus and mountains (< 15% found
higher than 300 m a.s.l. and <1% above the
600 m level; Bengtson and Bloch, 1983).
Thus, empty space is mostly to be found in
X*/.
*
0 10 20 km
Fig. 2. Breeding distribution ofwren in the Faroe
Islands in the 1980s and I990s. Each dot represents
one or several territorial males.
the central parts of the larger islands, such
as Streymoy, Eysturoy, and Vágar (Fig. 2).
About 18-19% of the pairs were found
within the settlements and another 9-10%
in the infields, thus nearly 3 of 10 pairs
breed in close association with man (Tab.
1). The outfields hold about half (47-50%)
and the sea cliffs nearly a quarter (22-24%)
of the total breeding population (Tab. 1).
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