A recent paper published in Ornis Fennica (Heldbjerg et al. 2019) showed that positive population trends of Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in Central-East Europe contrast with negative trends in North and West Europe. The study, which included common bird monitoring data from 24 European countries and involved no less than 34 co-authors, provides an example of how useful the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) and all the included national monitoring schemes within this collaboration are.
We are very proud to announce that Petr Voříšek, the long-standing PECBMS coordinator, was awarded the BTO Marsh Award for International Ornithology and the EuroBirdPortal team is this year´s winner of the BTO Marsh Award for Innovative Ornithology.
Recent research published online on October 9th, 2019 in Climate Change examined the strength of the relationship between species-specific regional population changes and climate suitability trends, using 30-year datasets of population change for 525 breeding bird species in Europe and the USA. The data for European species were obtained from PECBMS.
In a science blog post Prof. Richard Gregory, Head of Species Monitoring and Research, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science and Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, University College London, discusses recently published research by Juan Traba and Manuel B. Morales in Scientific Reports on the decline of steppe bird species and the loss of fallow land due to agriculture intensification.
On 11–12th March, a mini-workshop dedicated to wild bird indicators took place in Solsona, Spain. The Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) hosted more than 20 experts in bird monitoring thanks kind invitation from Lluís Brotons.
The first Atlas of Wintering and Migratory Birds of Portugal is the largest collective ornithological work of the last 10 years in the country and is finally published. Fieldwork produced almost 4000 hours of the census and 150 thousand bird records, covering three-quarters of the national territory in systematic visits. In all, more than 400 bird species have been registered. These are extraordinary results for a project of national scope, whose fieldwork was carried out in only two years.
All supra-national projects coordinated by EBCC, especially EBBA2, EuroBirdPortal, and PECBMS, require binding decisions on the taxonomy and nomenclature employed for the birds. This demands a classification system that is standardized, trustworthy, and globally accepted and is also likely to stand the test of time.
