Tag Archives: birds

Sing, fly, soar – like a bird!

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From World Migratory Bird Day

World Migratory Bird Day: Join the global celebration of birds and nature on 8 May 2021!

“Sing, fly, soar – like a bird!” is the theme of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day, an annual global campaign dedicated to raising awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.

This year the campaign will focus on the phenomena of “bird song” and “bird flight” as a way to inspire and connect people of all ages around the world in their shared desire to celebrate migratory birds and to unite in a common, global effort to protect birds and the habitats they need to survive.

The 2021 World Migratory Bird Day theme is an invitation to people everywhere to connect and re-connect with nature by actively listening to – and watching birds – wherever they are. At the same time the theme appeals to people around the world to use their own voices and creativity to express their shared appreciation of birds and nature.

Birds can be found everywhere: in cities and in the countryside; in parks and backyards, in forests and mountains, and in wetlands and along the shores. They connect all these habitats and they connect us, reminding us of our own connection to the planet, the environment, wildlife and each other. Through their seasonal movements, migratory birds are also regularly reminding us of nature’s cycles.



As global ambassadors of nature, migratory birds not only connect different places across the planet, they also re-connect people to nature and to themselves like no other animals on the planet.

In fact, billions of migratory birds have continued to sing, fly and soar between their breeding and non-breeding sites. During the pandemic, which slowed down many activities by limiting our movements, people across the world have been listening to and watching birds like never before. For many people around the world, bird song has also been a source of comfort and joy during the pandemic, connecting people to each other and to nature as they remain in place.



Scientists around the world have also been studying the impact the pandemic is having on birds and other wildlife, looking at how “the anthropause” – the so-called global shutdown in human activity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic – has effected birds and other wildlife around the world. At the same time, scientists have also been looking at the positive health benefits of birds and nature on humans.

Clearly, the pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for humankind. At the same time, it has also brought a whole new level of awareness and appreciation of birds and the importance of nature for our own well-being.

World Migratory Bird Day 2021 is therefore not only a celebration of birds, it is also an important moment to reflect on our own global relationship with nature and to highlight our collective desire to do more to protect birds and nature in a post-pandemic world.

World Migratory Bird Day is organized by a collaborative partnership among two UN treaties -the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) -and the non-profit organization, Environment for the Americas (EFTA). The 2021 campaign is also actively being supported by the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) Secretariat and a growing number of other dedicated organisations.

Celebrated across the world on two peak days each year – on the second Saturday in May and second Saturday in October – World Migratory Bird Day is the only international awareness-raising and education program that celebrates the migration of bird species along all the major flyways of the world.

To learn more and to register your event please visit World Migratory Bird Day 

Report highlights status of UK’s familiar birds

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From BirdGuides

The latest BirdTrends report from the BTO is especially significant in that it provides an early indication of one of the periodic revisions of the UK’s Red List due to be published at the end of this year. The report is a one-stop shop for information about the population status of familiar breeding birds across the UK.

The report also includes information on breeding performance and survival for a subset of the species, monitored through BTO’s avian demographic schemes – Nest Record Scheme and Ringing Scheme. The report covers 121 species and is based on data gathered by the many thousands of volunteers who contribute to BTO-led surveys, highlighting the changing fortunes of UK and Channel Islands’ birds.

While some species have declined, others have increased. Great spotted woodpecker has shown the largest increase (up 387% in the last 50 years), thanks in part to increases in the number of people providing bird feeders in their gardens. A recent increase in the song thrush population of 15% means it is a candidate for removal from the highest category of conservation concern – the Red List – and the next periodic revision of the list could see song thrush move to the Amber List.

The UK Red List highlights those species in most need of conservation help, because of large-scale reductions in breeding or non-breeding numbers or range, or because they are considered threatened at an international level. Two species highlighted in the latest BirdTrends report that are candidates for being moved onto the Red List are greenfinch and house martin.

A species qualifies for the Red List if there has been a population decline of at least 50% over 25 years, or more. As the latest BirdTrends report reveals, we have lost over one million of our greenfinches during the last 15 years, largely due to the emergence of the disease trichomonosis. House martin populations have been in longer-term decline, perhaps reflecting changes in land-use or reductions in the abundance of favoured invertebrate prey.

For the first time, the report brings together conclusions from scientific research on the conservation actions that can be taken to help those birds whose populations are in decline. For example, research on Eurasian curlew populations suggests that approaches to habitat management that better benefit breeding birds is the best way to improve the fortunes of this iconic bird.

Dr Rob Robinson, lead author on the report, said: “The annual data gathered by our volunteer recorders, and which are summarised in this report, enable us to keep a close eye on a wide array of our bird species, highlighting when they are in trouble and providing the evidence needed to show whether conservation action has turned things around.

“The massive volunteer effort harnessed through a wide range of schemes is critical to conservation, identifying problems, helping to diagnose causes, and assessing the solutions. All of the volunteers involved should feel very proud of their contribution.”

The full report BirdTrends 2020: Trends in numbers, breeding success and survival for UK breeding birds can be read here.

Impacts of human activities on Britain’s birds revealed

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From Rare Bird Alert

A new study has shown how human activities such as agriculture, deforestation, and the drainage of wetlands have shaped where bird species are found in Great Britain today potentially providing a new approach to setting conservation priorities.

Researchers used data on the geographical distributions of bird species alongside simulation models to predict where bird species would exist today if the effects of human activities on the landscape were removed. In this scenario there were winners and losers among different bird species due to the impact of humans. The study found that 42% of the 183 breeding bird species considered were more widely distributed today than they would be in a human-free world, particularly birds associated with farmland habitats.

Conversely, 28% of species, particularly moorland and upland bird species, were much rarer today than they would be if they were not impacted by human activities.

The researchers say their findings could apply to other parts of the world, too. Dr Tom Mason, previously of Durham University’s Department of Biosciences, but now based at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, said: “Our study suggests that farmland bird species, such as turtle dove and grey partridge, would be less widespread without the open habitats created by agriculture while moorland species, such as golden eagle and greenshank, have probably been negatively affected by the long-term, extractive human use of moorlands by grazing, burning, hunting and forestry.

“We also found that species found in dense woodlands, such as goshawk and capercaillie, would be much more widespread in a ‘human-free’ Great Britain, which would be much more forested than the present day.”

The study produced human-free range-size estimates which were compared against current bird distributions. Conservation managers often use target population sizes, based on past distributions, to guide species’ recovery programmes. The impact of conservation activities can then be assessed by comparing current numbers to historical numbers of bird species.

The authors argue that their approach, which instead uses simulated potential range-sizes as baselines, could complement indicators of short-term extinction risk such as the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Professor Stephen Willis, of Durham’s Department of Biosciences said: “Our results could lead to reassessments of current conservation priorities. We identified 21 species that were not classified as threatened by the IUCN Red List for Great Britain but which had much smaller current distributions than we predict them to have in the absence of human activities.

 

“This suggests that their ranges are in a more degraded state than currently recognized. Some of these species, such as greenshank, golden eagle and whinchat, are not under active conservation management and could be candidates for higher prioritization.”

The researchers say that considering only recent changes in species’ state can lead to a phenomenon known as ‘shifting baseline syndrome,’ where people set their expectations based on experiences in their lifetime, this can underestimate the plight of species that have declined due to human activities a long time ago. Previous studies have tried to combat this by using historical baselines from past centuries; however, historic species’ records tend to be sparse and are difficult to apply across different species.

The study also identified 10 species that are not currently found in Great Britain, but which might have established themselves in the country in the absence of past human activities. For example, the researchers say that the Kentish plover, which has not bred in Great Britain since the middle of the 20th century, was projected to be found across south-east England in the absence of damaging human activity.

Similarly, the white-tailed eagle, which currently has a small presence, and the black-winged stilt, which is a very rare breeder in Great Britain, would also be expected to be much more widespread than they are now.

The authors believe that their approach could be used to identify areas that are climatically suitable, but where habitat may have been degraded by human activities. The RSPB plans to use this new research as one of a number of measures of how ‘favourable’ breeding bird populations are in Great Britain as it provides an objective measure against which to assess species’ ranges or distributions.

This is important as it helps the RSPB to quantify Favourable Conservation Status and standardize methodology for its assessment. Favourable Conservation Status is an important political standard set for the conservation of migratory species under the Bonn Convention, and for habitats and species protected by EU Nature Directives.

Dr Gillian Gilbert, of the RSPB and one of the study’s co-authors, said, “This work could help to target where habitat and species restoration actions might lead to the return of historically lost species, or even to novel colonists.”

The authors are now planning to extend their approach to also evaluate species’ population sizes, which they hope will lead to lead to unified population targets for species across Great Britain.

Download or read the paper Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status here

The State of the UK’s Birds 2020

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From BTO

The State of UK’s Birds reports have provided an annual overview of the status of breeding and non-breeding bird species in the UK and its Overseas Territories since 1999. This year’s report highlights the continuing poor fortunes of the UK’s woodland birds.

SUKB collates data from annual, periodic and one-off surveys and monitoring studies of birds, such as the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP) and Goose and Swan Monitoring Programme (GSMP). In addition, the 2020 report also includes results from the Nest Record Scheme, Constant Effort Sites (CES) Scheme and Re-trapping Adults for Survival (RAS) Scheme, the latter two schemes collecting demographic information through the efforts of bird ringers.

The report takes information from these and other schemes, research and surveys and delivers information at a country-specific scale, as well as providing an overview for the UK as a whole.

Volunteers play an essential role in bird monitoring in the UK, by donating their time, energy and expertise. The data they collect are vital for conservation, tracking changes in populations and supporting policy development. This year, many monitoring schemes have been adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic and we want to say a special thank you to all of our volunteers for their continued support through this difficult time. Their skill, effort and dedication deserve huge recognition.

Woodland species

This year’s report highlights the continuing poor fortunes of the UK’s woodland birds. The UK Wild Bird Populations Indicator for woodland species show a long-term decline of 27% since the early 1970s, with declines of 7% evident over just the last five years. More worryingly, when looking at individual trends within the report, some specialist woodland birds have declined dramatically, including willow tit with a 94% decline since 1970 as illustrated by the joint Common Birds Census / Breeding Bird Survey UK-wide trend.

After worrying declines in breeding tawny owl populations were flagged-up by the Breeding Bird Survey, BTO launched targeted survey work on this species during 2018 and 2019. SUKB reports on some of the results from this research, which revealed a decline in site occupancy from 65% in 2005 to 53% in 2018/19. The BTO work has also sought to understand some of the reasons for this change in fortunes.

Results at different scales

Data from many of the surveys covered in SUKB also feed into European-wide schemes and the SUKB report goes from celebrating the publication of the latest European Breeding Bird Atlas, through to finer-scale country-specific results and research. Not bad for an 80-page report!

Country-specific headlines include increases in house sparrow populations in Wales, where work is also taking place to address the pronounced decline in curlew numbers. In Scotland, the fragile status of corncrake is highlighted, alongside increases in farmland species such as tree sparrow and yellowhammer. The Northern Ireland pages look into changing fortunes of seabirds and explore how proposed marine Special Protection Areas may be used to tackling the observed decline. The Northern Ireland pages also examine declines in wintering geese, such as light-bellied brent goose. Finally, over to England and promising results for stone curlew conservation work, as well as reporting back on the English Winter Bird Survey for which 1,485 sites were surveyed by volunteers to help us understand the value of agri-environment options.

As in previous reports, we hear about species from 14 UK Overseas Territories and three Crown Dependencies – including black-browed albatross, St Helena plover and South Georgia pipit, about the Gough Island Restoration Programme, and discover that 69 species in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are now Globally Threatened.

Closer to home, 25 years of BTO Garden BirdWatch is also celebrated, with goldfinch now the 8th most commonly recorded garden bird, up from 20th back in 1995.

Volunteers

There is a common theme in this report: volunteers. The sheer enormity of their contributions to bird monitoring as a whole is evident throughout this report. Most of the surveys and schemes covered here are only possible thanks to the dedication and skills of the thousands of volunteers who give up their time to help monitor birds and in turn, inform conservation action. Thank you.

Who produces this report?

SUKB 2020 is produced by a coalition of three NGOs: the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), together with the UK’s statutory nature conservation bodies: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland (DAERA), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England (NE), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and NatureScot.

Download The State of the UK’s Birds 2020 here 

 

Birds in the Channel Islands: lists updated

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A little later than in previous years, we are very pleased to update everyone on the Channel Islands’ birds. Two new species were added to the Islands list and unlike some of last year’s (here) they were ‘proper’ species, not those cryptic ones hiding in plain sight. Although Guernsey did add the previously ‘hidden’ Iberian chiffchaff and Caspian gull to their own list in 2018.

With some revisions (Jersey’s saker falcon, probably an escape, was demoted), the overall total for the Islands only actually went up by one so now stands at 377. I was right, last year, that Alderney would add little bunting to their total but they still haven’t reached 300. Losing a bean goose (its become two species and while Jersey can confirm records of both taiga and tundra bean, Guernsey and Alderney decided that they couldn’t retrospectively confirm the tundra version) put them back one, the little bunting brought them back up to 298. The wait for 300 goes on!    

And, in the separate islands, Guernsey added the three species above but also saw their first pallid swifts with birds seen in October and November. Offshore Guernsey birders recorded their Island and the whole CI’s third Wilson’s petrel. And, to rub it in with their southern neighbours the royal tern continued to hang around until May and still didn’t visit Jersey.

In Alderney, the impressive effort continued and besides the little bunting, long awaited second records of goosander, Iceland gull and Richard’s and tawny pipits were logged. There were also three records of great egret, a rapidly spreading species, and two of cirl bunting, a species, in contrast, considered to be in decline and exhibiting limited movements. Interestingly, Sark also saw a cirl bunting, their first since, well, a long time ago. Jersey has breeding cirl buntings but they were absent from the Island from 2004-2012 pointing to more movement in this species than had been expected (and look out for more news on this beautiful bird next year!). 

Guernsey also recorded local rarities in Canada and pink-footed goose, penduline tit and corn bunting. Sark added records of only rarely recorded red kite, nightjar and hawfinch with their cirl bunting.

In Jersey, besides the two CI firsts, above, the first Island record of Pallas’s leaf warbler meant that a gap in the CI list was finally filled in – there have been 18 previous records of this warbler across the other three islands. There were also seconds for Barolo shearwater, little crake and Caspian gull. The little crake was found in poor health and died in care.  A third common rosefinch and third dusky warbler were also notable. 

Two further wading birds made contrasting appearances in the islands in 2018 with a Kentish plover recorded in Jersey for the third time since 2000 and six black-winged stilts seen (two in Jersey and four in Alderney). Kentish plover is a former breeder in Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney (last breeding in 1974) whereas the stilt was only first seen in the islands, in Guernsey, in 1987 and has now been recorded in 13 separate years.

The full A Working List of the Birds of the Channel Islands can be downloaded here