The cover of the Danish breeding birds Atlas III.
Enormous mapping of Danish breeding birds is here
November 30, 2020
Ten years of hard work, almost 1500 volunteers, and hundreds of thousands of observations. The third mapping of the distribution of Danish breeding birds is done and published. This mapping is the greatest piece of bird research in Denmark.
The cover of the Danish breeding birds Atlas III.
The massive mapping of Danish breeding birds Atlas III is the biggest piece of bird research in Denmark ever. Now the mapping is published in the new and extremely heavy book ‘Bird Atlas’ (Fugleatlas).
Ten years of hard work with enormous amounts of observations and about 1.7 million hours of volunteer work has been put into collecting data for Atlas III and ultimately ‘Bird Atlas’.
“BirdLife Denmark can be very proud of ‘Bird Atlas’. It is not only a fantastic project and a book. Our members have made an extraordinary effort to make this possible. Now we have got an actual status on the health of nature and birdlife in Denmark. This is going to be the benchmark for many years to come,” says chairman of BirdLife Denmark, Egon Østergaard.
The Danish mapping of breeding birds has been done twice before in the ’70s and the ’90s. In this third and latest edition of the project 213 different bird species are registered breeding in the country. 11 new species have been found breeding in the Danish nature this time relative to the last project that finished 22 years ago. During the same period, five species have disappeared from Denmark.
“‘Bird Atlas’ contains descriptions and distribution of all the species of Danish breeding birds. The results presented in the book reveals both stories of the positive developments and the downturns,” says biologist and lead author, Thomas Vikstrøm. “It is very satisfying that we again are up to date on the distribution of the Danish breeding birds, and that we now know the population density of the most common species.”
The timing of the publication of ‘Bird Atlas’ is perfect as data from Atlas III are naturally included in the upcoming publication of the second European breeding bird atlas, The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds II.
1468 volunteers participated in Atlas III, making it twice as big as the former projects and one of the biggest citizen-science projects in Denmark. And the volunteers are key in the project. Their efforts are priceless and one of the main reasons the project has been possible.
“The Danish ornithologists are an outstanding resource for doing citizen-science. I know no other field with so many unpaid enthusiasts putting their life into making such colossal amounts of work. It is humbling and we can only be grateful,” says Thomas Vikstrøm.
The book, ‘Bird Atlas’ is published by Lindhardt og Ringhof together with BirdLife Denmark and is among other places available here.
The project Atlas III and the book ‘Bird Atlas’ has been made possible by the generous support from Aage V. Jensen Naturfond.
For further information
Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF)
Tlf. 33 28 38 00
Thomas Vikstrøm, a biologist in BirdLife Denmark and lead author of ‘Bird Atlas’
Tlf. 33 28 38 23
Mark Desholm, head of the nature department of BirdLife Denmark and editor-in-chief of ‘Bird Atlas’
Tlf. 24 62 49 90
Egon Østergaard, chairman of BirdLife Denmark
Tlf. 31 16 20 30
An actual distribution map for Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca. Dark green squares mean confirmed breeding, light green squares mean probable breeding, and yellow squares mean possible breeding.
A map of the change in distribution from Atlas I (1971-74) to III (2014-17) for Little Grebe. Tachybaptus ruficollis. Yellow squares mean no change, green triangles gained distribution, and red triangles men lost distribution. (Black triangles mean totally new squares).