Occupancy of environments and indices of occurrence of raptors in the peri-urban area of Uberlândia – MG, Brazil

Predatory birds are predators of higher trophic levels that act to maintain the balance of ecosystems. With the fragmentation process, they alternate in remaining areas of native vegetation. The objective of this study was to verify the rates of occurrence of raptors, according to vegetation gradients in a peri-urban area, under the domain of the Cerrado biome. From 04/15 to 12/16 bi-weekly observations (165h) were performed with a 10×50 binocular. Seven fixed points were established, walked on foot for one hour at each point.There were 399 individuals of ten species: Coragyps atratus, Caracara plancus, Rupornis magnirostris, Falco femoralis, Heterospizias meridionalis, Falco sparverius, Elanus leucurus, Ictinia plumbea, Milvago chimachima and Genarospizias caerulescens. The relative abundance and frequency of occurrence ranged from 41.3% (Coragyps atratus) and 77.8% (Caracara plancus) to 0.2 and 3.7% (Geranospizias caerulescens). There were records of 230 individuals (57%) in the pasture, 77 (19%) in the cerradão, 60 in the path (15%) and 32 (8%) in gallery forest. The community is composed of species that adapt in altered areas, which shows that such fragments associated to urban environments can contribute to the maintenance of raptors.