EBCC Newsletter

Winter 2023

Photo by Monika Suržinová www.fotonatur.eu

Dear readers

It is winter and getting dark early, time to read the latest news from EBCC. Read about new developments in our projects. The new EU-funded LIFE project is aimed at reinforcing the EuroBirdPortal initiative, and in particular in SE Europe. In this region, human and financial resources are still insufficient. Strengthening our partners in E and SE Europe is one of the targets of the Small Grant Fund. Five promising projects are looking for funding. Can you help?

The new issue of Bird Census News is the last one edited by Aleksi Lehikoinen. He chose an interesting topic, mammals and other taxa included in common bird monitoring schemes. We thank Aleksi for his work and look forward to the next issue, which will be edited by Mark Eaton.

Verena Keller

EBCC Board changes

At its virtual meeting in October, the Board had to say goodbye to Chris van Turnhout and elected Julia Stahl (SOVON, The Netherlands) as the new board member. The Board also welcomed Rob Robinson as an observer from EURING.

PECBMS update 2023

On Monday, 11 December, the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme updated the common bird indices and indicators. The 2023 update is based on data from 30 European countries covering 43 years up to 2022. Unfortunately, the data shows a continuing decline in bird populations. All European common birds declined by 19%, and common forest birds by 8%. Farmland species have experienced the most pronounced losses. The 61% decline in the European Farmland Bird Index (FBI) is alarming. We can only hope that positive actions like the Nature Restoration Law will help to stop the loss and reverse the trend.

Check the update

EuroBirdPortal meeting organised back-to-back with LIFE EBP Reinforcement workshops

From 20 to 25 November, we organised a EuroBirdPortal (EBP) workshop at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology in Brno, Czechia. The first two days focused on the regular EBP meeting and the first LIFE EBP Reinforcement workshop on EBP data flow, where we hosted 51 participants from 21 countries. In a series of exciting lectures, we could also see practical implementations of the data collected through online portals. The second LIFE EBP Reinforcement workshop was directed at partners from seven countries from SE and E Europe, which are the main targets of the new LIFE project. These countries will start their own pilot common bird monitoring schemes and implement national online bird portals.Therefore, the main objective was to train them on these two subjects. Although each of these countries will not be able to start a full-grown national bird monitoring scheme, the data will be collected with the same methodology across countries (International Census Plots) and pooled into one dataset to produce a regional index of population change. In total, 23 people from 12 different countries attended this workshop.

Support the Small Grant Fund

The European Bird Census Council has set up a Small Grant Fund (SGF) to support national bird monitoring activities, particularly in Europe's low – and middle-income countries. In 2023, we received ten applications for small grants from ten countries, and the EBCC Board has selected six projects as priorities for support. The projects come from six countries and request nearly 60,000 euros in total. As the EBCC's resources are insufficient to fund all projects selected for support, we kindly ask individuals or organisations to donate and help us.

Donate

Bird Census News 36/1–2

The brand new issue of Bird Census News focuses on additional taxa included in common bird monitoring programmes across Europe. A questionnaire sent to the national scheme coordinators revealed that several European countries already have ongoing mammal monitoring in their surveys and can calculate population trends for several species. We present six national case studies on how countries have adopted mammal monitoring in their bird surveys, including analyses and results. Finally, the BCN also introduced an EBCC board member, Mark Eaton.

Download a PDF of the whole issue

Newly published Seabirds Count results

The results from Seabirds Count, the fourth census of Britain and Ireland’s internationally significant populations of breeding seabirds, were published on 16 November 2023. Over 10,000 sites and 25 species were surveyed between 2015 and 2021 to provide a comprehensive update on the state of these populations and gain greater insight into the relationships between them and the pressures they face.

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