Recent established population of tree sparrow in Algeria: palms contributed actively to increasing breeding pairs

After recording the first tree sparrow’s breeding for Algeria, we monitored the increasing of breeding pairs in two sites of Annaba province. During our study conducted 2012–2018, breeding pairs increased significantly in an urban garden from 2 to 27 pairs and non-significantly in a suburban area from two to a maximum of ten pairs. Nest height above ground differed strongly between nest substrate where palms (49% in urban garden) and buildings (100% in suburban area) were most used. Resource selection index (Wi) was applied to highlight the suitable substrate used for breeding. The index demonstrated palms (presenting the higher diameters at breast height) were the most preferred (~ 37% of occupancy) for breeding. Principal component analysis revealed that all local habitat variables (including nest height, tree high, diameter at breast height “DBH”, number of cavity) contributing in breeding pairs increasing are grouped in an only factor represented by substrate (nest tree) where the most contributing one was the Palm tree.