Successful conference Bird Numbers 2019

It was superbly organised by LabOr-Laboratory of Ornithology (University of Évora). More than 220 participants visited five plenary sessions, four workshops, 80 presentations in eight sessions, several side events such as a concert, and wine tasting, and field trips to beautiful birding sites. Thanks go to the organising team and all the participants at this pleasant and fruitful event!

You may watch all the plenary sessions here.

Jaime Ramos: The road to travel: from population-level studies to functional ecology and conservation

Frank Vassen: Importance of bird data for EU Nature Policies – past, present, and future?

Becki Lawson: Disease as a driver of wild bird population declines – how do we quantify the impact?

Daniel Burgas: Engaging indigenous people in bird monitoring

Ruud Foppen: Thinking big: EBCC´s future in developing citizen ornithology at a continental scale

Elections of EBCC board members and national delegates

During the Annual General Meeting at the conference Bird Numbers on Wednesday, April 10 the new EBCC board was elected. To see the list of the EBCC Board members elected for the period 2019-2021 and the observers visit the EBCC website.

We would like to thank and pay tribute to the outgoing chairman Ruud Foppen, who led a period of great development for the EBCC. In addition, we would like to express the thanks of the EBCC community to the four members who stood down – Anny Anselin, Lluis Brotons, Oskars Keiss, and David Noble – for all they have done over many years.

We welcome our new chairman, Dr. Mark Eaton, Principal Conservation Scientist at RSPB, and all the new Board Members and National delegates elected for the period 2019-2021!

PECBMS workshop 

On Friday, April 12 PECBMS team organised a workshop which was a good opportunity to meet within the network and share ideas and experience. We informed national coordinators and the wider audience about progress in our work introduced the new tools for computation (RTRIM, MSI tool) and data delivery (On-line tools), and stimulated discussion about future plans and priorities.

EBBA 2 workshop

On Wednesday, April 10 a short workshop on EBBA2 was organised, too. Among other issues, all the types of map which EBBA2 will produce were presented and discussed, as well as the plans for the book publication and use of EBBA2 outputs in policy and research. We expect the EBBA2 will be published in a form of a book by the end of 2020. We encourage the readers to read the full report from the workshop on the EBBA2 website.

EBBA2 still seeks for support via a species sponsorship scheme

While we are getting closer to the publication of the EBBA2, we still need resources to finish the job. The species sponsorship scheme has been vital to getting contributions from individuals and organisations across Europe. So far, 269 donors have supported 248 species – we are grateful for their generous support! Further support will help us to produce the Atlas and make the retail price lower, helping to make the book accessible in economically less wealthy countries. For details on the scheme please visit the EBBA2 website.

For more information on Bird Numbers 2019 visit the conference website.