Press release: PECBMS common bird indices and indicators update 2023

The 2023 update of the European common bird indicators is based on data from 30 countries and mirrors the population changes in 168 species breeding in Europe. The farmland bird species experienced the most pronounced declines facing the loss of food and nesting opportunities due to intensive farming. As a result, in the last 43 years, we have lost 61% of birds like yellowhammers, swallows, and turtle doves.

The bird indicators are updated annually by the coordinating team of the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS), which has been based in Prague since 2002 in the Czech Society of Ornithology, BirdLife partner in Czechia. The European Commission, Eurostat, IUCN or OECD use the bird indicators to measure the state of the European environment. There is no long-term concise dataset on other taxa, such as the one on birds. Therefore, the data is frequently used by the world´s researchers, and more than 50 scientific articles were published based on it.

The bad fortunes of farmland birds are nothing new, but their decline is increasing year by year. “Although a 1% decline in farmland birds compared to last year may seem insignificant, it sends a warning message. If we allow farmland birds to continue disappearing at the same rate, by 2032, we will have lost 70% of the birds that lived in Europe’s farmland in 1980. Less than a third will remain,” says Eva Šilarová, coordinator of the pan-European monitoring project.

“The continuing decline of common bird species is alarming,” says Alena Klvaňová, the project manager of the Pan-European monitoring scheme. “It is not just so-called ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, insect pest control or pollination that we would miss without the presence of birds. Watching birds in the wild also positively affects the human psyche,” she explains. A measure that could finally bring change, she says, is the European Union’s new Nature restoration regulation. “This encourages Member States to halt the decline of field birds, as measured by the updated bird indicator,” Klvaňová adds.

Fortunately, there are also species which are doing well, such as the Black Redstart or White Stork, who seem to be able to adapt their migration strategy according to climate change.  Recently, some Black Redstart individuals overwinter in their breeding sites instead of migrating to the Mediterranean. Similarly, the White Storks, originally sub-Saharan migrants, tend to shorten their journeys and numbers of individuals overwinter in Spain.

Collecting such vast data would not be feasible for a scientist. This unique dataset exists thanks to an extensive network of volunteers, around 15,000 people, who have been counting common bird species in 30 European countries for decades. “We would like to thank all the volunteers who have been regularly counting birds in Europe every breeding season”, concludes Eva Šilarová.

Contact: Alena Klvaňová, klvanova@birdlife.cz

Notes:

1. The European common bird indicator is based on data from 30 countries on 168 species commonly breeding in Europe. Between 1980 and 2022, their populations declined by 19%.
2. The European farmland bird indicator is based on data from 30 countries on 39 species commonly breeding in the fields and meadows of Europe. Between 1980 and 2022, their populations declined by 61%.
3. The European Forest bird indicator is based on data from 30 countries on 34 species commonly breeding in European forests. Between 1980 and 2022, their populations declined by 8%.
4. The EU farmland bird indicator is based on data from 26 EU Member States on 39 species commonly breeding in Europe’s fields and meadows (missing data from the only EU country, Malta, which hosts a tiny proportion of Europe’s bird populations and systematic monitoring of breeding birds has only started this year with the help of PECBMS). Between 1980 and 2022, farmland bird populations in the EU declined by 55%.
5. The Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) was launched in January 2002 as a joint initiative of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) and BirdLife International. The project was supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and is currently funded by the European Commission. From its inception until now, it has been coordinated by the Czech Ornithological Society (CSO). The project’s main aim is to use common birds as indicators of the overall state of nature, using extensive and long-term data from monitoring changes in breeding populations across Europe. The indicators we publish annually have been adopted by the EU as structural and sustainable development indicators.
6. European bird indicators and pan-European trends for 170 common bird species are freely downloadable, as well as further details on this year’s update and complete information on the methods used to calculate them.
7. Gregory R. D., Eaton M. A., Burfield I. J., Grice P. V., Howard, C., Klvaňová A., Noble D., Šilarová E., Staneva A., Stephens P. A., Willis S. G., Woodward I. D. and Burns F., 2023. Drivers of the changing abundance of European birds at two spatial scales. Phil. Trans. of the Royal Soc. B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0198